The Valkyrie Legacy Part 1: Thunderstruck
by Veronica Dane
Summary: Cadence and her family vowed never to return to Asgard, but when her family is killed during the Salem Witch Trials, she is sent back to Asgard to live with Odin and his family. Endowed with immeasurable power, Cadence lives through the next few centuries, balancing her relationship with her betrothed, Loki, and fighting alongside her friend Thor. (Retelling of Thor and Avengers)
1. Chapter 1: How It All Began

***I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS EXCEPT CADE AND HER FAMILY. ALL OTHER RIGHTS GO TO MARVEL***

 ***This is a retelling of the First Thor Movie and the First Avengers Movie***

Water rushed into my lungs washing away any air I had left, washing away any hope that I was going to survive this. At least I would be able to join my family in Valhalla, that's all I wanted, to be able to see my father again and hold my little sister one more time. I struggled against the ropes that bound me to the wooden chair, floating lazily in the river. My wrists were rubbed raw, tiny streams of blood rose around me. I was sinking fast, too fast. There were so many things I had wanted to do, and I had so much life left to live, all taken away with a sweep of the current. My body constricted, trying to fight the water invading my lungs, but I knew it was too late. I shut my eyes ready to succumb to my fate.

I was tired of fighting, tired of trying, and I bowed my head, ready.

It's funny, no one ever thinks they will die a violent way, they always assume that it will be in a comfortable bed at the end of their life. I never thought about my death though, I thought it would be a long way from now, but I was wrong.

I felt a tug on the leg of the chair I was tied to, and hope surged through me. Maybe my captors had a change of heart, maybe they were not afraid of me anymore, maybe they would accept me.

My head burst out of the surface of the water, letting me take in a gasp of air. The cold winter wind struck my face, pushing a chill through my body. I glanced to the shore expecting to see Damen. He was the one that started all of this, he's the one that revealed what my family was to the town. I will regret telling him the rest of my life. I though it was love, I though he loved me, but every kiss, every touch was a lie. Damen never loved me, and I was just an idiot, an idiot in love.

But when I looked to the shore I saw my grandmother. Relief washed over me, followed by shame.

I had betrayed my entire family for him, because I thought that he would accept me, accept us, but I was wrong.

My grandmother was swiftly pulling me to shore, I could see the powerful muscles in her biceps straining to bring me in. The chair washed up on the riverbed, and my grandmother rushed over to me, pulling off the ropes that bound me. I purged the water from my lungs, retching it out onto the sand. I felt my grandmother's hand on my back, softly rubbing.

I looked up into her familiar face.

Her blue eyes were rimmed with red and her usual tidy brown hair hung in snarls around her shoulders. She looked years older, but she looked relieved that I was okay. She doesn't look like my grandmother, and when we came to this town we said she was my aunt. Asgardians don't age the same as everyone else, especially ones that possess magic, a trait that I inherited among other things. Everyone tells us that we look alike, we have the same hair and eyes and even carry ourselves the same way. She brought my pregnant mother and me to Midguard after Hela destroyed all the Valkyries. My grandmother is the last surviving one, and I think it hurts her sometimes. She hasn't spoken a word since she left Asgard. Hela really hated my grandmother, and to hurt her, Hela killed my father, my grandmother's only son. My mother would never talk about it, the day we left, but I remember it. I remember screams echoing around us, people crying out for help and their loved ones, bodies strewn on the streets. I was only 2, but some things stay in your mind forever. We were supposed to start a new life on Midgard, and we have been living here for a while, well a few hundred years, and all those years we were careful, that was until we moved here, to Salem, Massachusetts. We moved here and everything was okay, my family wasn't the only one that was gifted. The normal people started asking questions and some of the town told them, told them that we could do things other people couldn't. At first they were nice about it, made a document that would identify what families were special and they said it was for their safety. That's when everything went wrong. One day a goat died, and a normal blamed a special and suddenly it was us vs. them. My family didn't sign it, we thought it would be safer to remain anonymous. But I was the idiot that fell for the preacher's son. I didn't know that he would tell his father, I didn't know they would come for my family so quickly.

I stood up to my feet and looked around me. None of the townspeople remained, they had left me to die and that was it. My grandmother looked at me with sad eyes, eyes that had seen so much, eyes filled with pain. She took my hand in hers and led me towards our home, quietly ducking behind the trees, staying out of sight.

We arrived at our home quickly, and it wasn't hard to find at all. The smell of burning attracted us to the house we once called home. My mother had chosen this spot because it was a little bit out of town, where no one would find us, no one would see something they weren't supposed to. They wouldn't see my mother lift something that was too heavy to be lifted by one woman, they wouldn't see my little sisters levitating objects inside the house, and they wouldn't see me and my grandmother fighting with swords as big as we were. I looked to the right of the once well kept house and saw the pyre clearly. It was still smoking, sending ash and smoke into the air, like it was the most normal thing in the world. The birds were swarming what was left of my family. My little sister was only 6, another bad relationship on my mother's part, and they had still burned her alive, feeling no remorse. That's when I lost it. Huge tears rolled down my face, and sobs wracked through my body.

 _What had I done?_

I don't know why they wanted to drown me instead, maybe I was to be killed alone, because that is what I feared the most.

I wondered if Damen was happy now, if he was proud of what he had done. Anger blazed through me at the thought of him being happy.

My grandmother touched my shoulder softly, and moved me towards the house once more.

We had to get out of here now, before the raiders came to take what was ours. She rushed through the door and up the stairs quickly, moving with purpose. I dawdled behind her, stuck in my own head. I slowly made my way to my room, and stopped. My room door was open, and I was sure that I had left it closed this morning. I took in a deep breath and kicked open the door.

Damen was standing with his back to me going through my stuff.

"Haven't you taken enough from me!" I shouted at him, grabbing his shoulder and turning him to face me.

He screamed loudly and jumped away from me. "You," He stuttered raising a finger and pointing it at me. "You are supposed to be dead! Demon!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

"If anybody else is going to die today, it's going to be you!" I roared.

He backed up against the wall, fear flashing in his eyes.

"Now Damen, did thou even love me? Did you even care for me?" I said softly.

"No," He spat. "How could I ever love you? You are a witch, an abomination."

"I am not a witch." I countered.

"Yes thou are! A witch, a demon, a mystic!" He shouted louder.

I smiled at his jeer. "Mystic, I like that." I mumbled under my breath to myself.

"And my father will destroy thou!" He spat. "Just like he killed your family."

"You killed my family Damen, not your father! You need to realize that!"

"No my father did this." Damen responded.

"No Damen he didn't." I yelled. I could hear my grandmother on the stairs, she was quickly coming towards me. "You did this! You told your dad everything about me! I thought you loved me Damen, I thought-" My voice broke as anger and pain flashed through my body.

"How could I ever love you?" He spat, his face red.

My grandmother was suddenly in the doorway, clutching a giant sword. It wasn't like any sword I had ever seen. It seemed to glow in the shadows, and it was almost as big as her.

"Stay the hell away from me demon!" Damen shouted backing away until his back hit the wall.

My grandmother was staring at him coldly, her grip on her sword tightening. She took a step into the room slowly deliberately, raising her sword in front of her expertly.

Damen tried to shrink back, but there was no place to go, no place to hide. "Do what you want to me, but nothing can save you demons. You will perish, my father will destroy you."

"Let them come, we will destroy them too." I rasped, a sneer on my face.

Her sword slashed cutting down Damen where he stood.

And I felt nothing.

I stepped around his body and grabbed my bag from the small cubby where I stored my clothes. I grabbed everything I could, shoving into the knapsack that I threw onto my shoulder. I turned to face my grandmother, she was still holding the sword. It was still glowing, almost hypnotic in the dark of my room.

"Grandmother we have to go, we have to keep moving." I said solemnly. But she only stood there absorbed in her thoughts, and I wondered what she saw.

I placed my hand on her arm, and her eyes shot to mine.

She pressed the hilt of the sword into my hands, and as she did it began to shrink slowly, getting smaller and smaller until it became a small silver bracelet that wrapped around my wrist.

"What the-" I stammered, touching the bracelet. It seemed to get warmer against my skin as I touched it.

 _Sword._ I thought to myself and suddenly it lengthened into the sword I once saw. I examined it running my finger across the edge of the blade.

 _Too bad it's a sword, I'm more of an ax person._

Suddenly the sword shifted in my hand becoming a giant ax.

"What the hell?" I shouted, holding the ax in my hand. I looked up at my grandmother, she had a small smile on her face.

"Was this your sword when you were a Valkyrie?" I asked her, getting out of town suddenly forgotten.

She nodded and smiled. She then pointed at me.

"You want me to have it? Why?" I said suddenly suspicious. The sun was going down quickly, darkness blanketing the room.

A dark look crossed over her face.

"Grandmother why are you giving this to me?" I pleaded.

That's when the screaming started. I saw in the shadows of the trees, people begin to filter out waving pitchforks and rope, torches glowing brightly in the night.

The ax grew heavy in my hand, and I swallowed

My grandmother reached out and grabbed my arm pulling me from the house, and running into the woods.

Branches truck me across the face, drawing blood. We wove in and out of the trees, but the townspeople were right on our heels, I could practically feel the heat from their torches against my skin.

Finally the woods opened up and deposited us on a cliff.

And I knew we weren't going to escape this.

I turned around slowly, ready to face my death.

"You killed my son, and for that thou shall pay!" Damen's father yelled. His long grey beard swishing in the breeze, coming from the cliffs.

"Your son was a demon and deserved to die." I spat, raising the ax in front of me, ready to attack. The ground around me trembled and cracked beneath my feet.

My grandmother's grip on me turned hard and I looked up into her eyes. Love flickered in them, plus a thousand other emotions I couldn't identify. She shook her head slowly, as if to say that there was no way.

I opened my mouth to speak, but in one fluid motion my grandmother threw me backwards off the cliff.

A scream ripped from my throat, echoing off the cliff wall. The ocean was approaching quickly and I closed my eyes ready for impact.

But for the first time in hundreds of years my grandmother spoke.

"Heimdall open the Bifrost!"' She screamed.

And my world was suddenly absorbed in white light.


	2. Chapter 2: New Home

I woke up in a field, laying in the tall grass. It brushed against my bare arms, and through my clothes. Above me the sun was high in the sky illuminating the field. I sat up slowly, holding my head. Memories scorched through my mind like a wild fire. Yet another cliff sat to my left on the edge of my vision, dark and ominous on the horizon.

 _Is this what being dead feels like?_

I looked to my right and saw my grandmother standing a few feet away, her beautiful brown hair falling in loose wave over her was wearing her full battle armor, something that I had only seen once, the day we left Asgard. She opened her arms wide to me, and smiled widely. I rose swiftly and threw myself into her embrace, her arms wrapping around me, comforting me. Hot tears ran down my face, running into her long hair.

"Cadence we don't have much time." My grandmother murmured into my hair.

I looked up at her, shocked that she had spoken.

"Are we dead?" I asked her pulling away from her.

She pursed her lips together, and didn't say anything.

Dread flashed through me.

"Cadence, you are not dead. I had to make a hard decision and you need to understand what happens next." She pleaded putting her hands on my shoulders, shaking me.

I nodded slowly, and tried to focus on what she was saying.

"I am sending you back to Asgard. But there are things that are going to happen that you will not understand." She swallowed. "I'm sorry that we didn't have enough time, I should have told you. I should have prepared you." Her voice broke.

"Wait, you are sending me back to Asgard?" I asked her. We hadn't been back in years, we had no idea what was happening there.

"Yes, but you need to understand that knowledge is power, and those things about Hela, they happened so long ago, and Odin took precautions to make the people of Asgard safe. You will be the only one who remembers her, and you can't reveal that to anyone"

At the sound of her name, the sun seemed to dim a little and the wind picked up, whipping my hair into my face.

"How do you know?" I questioned her. "We haven't had contact with anyone in Asgard in years, how do you know what happened?"

"I've seen it." She said quietly.

"You've seen it?" A tremor shook the ground beneath our feet.

My grandmother's eyes shot up to look around us, almost as if she was looking for someone. Her gaze dropped quickly back to me.

"Cadence listen to me. You have great power, and you won't understand it at first, but you will be able to control it some day." Her voice broke once more. "I just wish I could have been there to see it." Tears formed in the corner of her eyes, and began to fall quickly down her face.

"Grandmother, I don't understand." I choked out, through my own tears.

"I don't expect you to, but one day you will understand." She whispered, her face solemn. Another tremor shook the earth, this one made me stumble a little bit.

"She is here." I heard my grandmother murmur. Her gaze shot to the treeline behind us.

"Who is here?" I asked.

"Remember that I love you, and don't forget that I will always love you. Never be afraid of your power, and let Obsidian guide you." As she spoke those words, the glowing sword appeared in her hands once more.

"Wait, what's happening?" I shouted, confusion and fear flying through my veins.

"Cadence, Obsidian is your now. I give you it's legacy and I bestow my powers on you." As she spoke these words, I began to glow and pain spread through me. I dropped to my knees, but all at once the pain stopped, and I felt stronger than I ever had.

 _What the hell is happening?_

My grandmother helped me off the ground, handing me the giant sword. "You are stronger than anyone I know, always remember that I'm looking out for you." She brushed a stray hair from my face.

"Grandmother don't leave me." I cried out. "I don't want to be alone."

"You will never be alone. I will always be with you." She replied, pulling me against her one more time.

Her arms suddenly tightened on me, and as I looked up into her face, I saw that she was focused on the trees behind us, anger flashing in her eyes, and I turned to look behind us.

A woman stepped from the shadows of the treeline. She was gaunt and pale, dressed in all black. As she walked towards us the plants around her died, turning black and crisp in her wake. A sickening smile marred her beautiful face.

"Hello Eirin." She drawled out.

"Hela." My grandmother growled out.

Fear closed around my throat.

"I've been waiting for you." Hela replied. Her eyes rose to me. "Is this your grandaughter? Well she grew into a beauty didn't she?"

My grandmother pushed me behind her. "She is none of your concern Hela."

"Then again of course she turned into a beauty, her father was quite something." Hela jeered, a sick glint in her eye.

My jaw tightened.

"How dare you speak of my son!" My grandmother roared.

"Oh, must be a sore spot. The person you loved the most you couldn't save, and actually a few people you loved you couldn't save. I welcomed them here just as I will welcome you." Hela taunted, a smirk raising one side of her lips. She raised her hands out in a mocking hug.

My grandmother was on her in the minute, rising off the ground flying towards Hela swiftly. Hela raised her hand easily and caught my grandmother around the throat.

"You have no power here Eirin, but I am glad we finally got to talk this through." Hela said, squeezing her throat tightly.

A cry ripped through my throat and I charged Hela, sword raised above my head. For once in my life, not afraid of death.

My grandmother made eye contact with me, and waved her hand pushing me backward, off the cliff behind me, sending me into oblivion.

* * *

I jolted awake on a cold marble floor. Above me the ceiling swirled in golden symbols, never stopping. I sat up slowly, my head still pounding. The room was circular, and was made of gold, more gold than I had ever seen in my lifetime. I stood up shakily, and realized that I was wearing my grandmother's battle armor. Obsidian was sheathed across my back, a giant formidable sword, but it made me feel better to have a weapon in a strange place. A man stood stoic in the center of the room, his giant golden sword sheathed in a pedestal rising from the ground.

His eyes followed my every move, trying to decide if I was a threat.

A giant opening in the wall behind him, displayed a beautiful golden city. And I remembered where I was, Asgard.

I took in a deep breath, and tried to not let the memories of the past define what I thought of the city now.

"So you are the daughter of Astrid and Kain?" The man in the room asked, his voice echoing throughout the large room. "The granddaughter of Eirin the Commander of the Valkyries?"

"Yes, I am, and who are you?" I said, a lot more confidently than I felt.

He nodded once, and removed his sword from the pedestal, and hoisted it on his shoulder.

"I am Heimdall, the gatekeeper of the Bifrost." He said his bright gold eyes watching me.

"Follow me Cadence." He said over his shoulder as he turned to walk towards the golden city.

 _How did he know my name? How does he know my family?_

"I know all and see all." He said calmly.

 _Well that tells me nothing..._

As we walked a heavy silence settled over us.

"I am truly sorry about your loss." He said, breaking the silence.

I swallowed. "Thank you."

"Your grandmother was a brave woman. Not many people would make the sacrifice she did." He continued.

"You knew her?" I asked. My eyes drifted to the bridge beneath us, flashing with every color of the rainbow. Asgard lay before us, more beautiful than I remembered.

"Yes I did, a very long time ago, we were friends." He murmured.

I didn't say anything. I couldn't say anything. I thought I knew everything about my grandmother, but I knew nothing.

We walked through the winding city, and those we passed stared at me and whispered to each other. Obsidian slipped out of the sheath on my back and shifted into a silver circlet, moving around my head, holding my hair out of my face. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. I had forgotten how many people there were in Asgard.

Heimdall ignored their stares and continued to walk towards the palace in front of us. It rose so high in the sky it, hurt to look up to see the end of it.

We arrived at the massive doors, guards stood on both sides, trying to look as intimidating as they could.

I took a deep breath, and tried to focus on calming my nerves.

Heimdall nodded at one of the guards, and the giant doors opened in front of us. As soon as we stepped through the doorway, a gasp slipped from my mouth. The throne room was huge, bigger than any room I had ever seen. Gold plated the walls and giant columns that seemed to go on for miles.

In the giant throne in front of us sat Odin. I remembered seeing him more than once in my childhood, because of my grandmother. She would have to leave often to discuss battle strategies and plans, and some days my grandmother would take me with her. I was too young to be left alone and I remember Odin laughing as I sat and watched them plan for the coming war. He used to say that I was the next generation of Valkyrie.

Now as I stood before him, I was afraid. Afraid that he would kill me for what I knew, afraid that he would hate me for what had happened.

"Cadence." Odin's voice boomed across the throne room. Frigga stood to his side, a wide smile on her face.

"Yes, my king." I said bowing low before the throne.

"It has been too long." I heard Odin respond. My gaze was still fixed on the floor.

I felt a strong hand on my shoulder, and I looked up into Odin's blue eye.

"I am sorry, for what has happened, but please walk with me." He requested, helping me to my feet.

I grasped his elbow and he lead me out of the room, out onto the open walk way.

"How much do you remember?" He asked me suddenly.

I was suddenly reminded of my grandmother's warning.

"Only bits and pieces, sir. I just remember having to leave suddenly, in the night." I replied softly.

The birds sang and swooped in and out of the eaves above us. It was nice to be back in Asgard, a feeling of calm settled over me.

"Yes, I'm sorry for what your family had to go through. But do not worry, you won't be troubled for much longer." He said quickly, turning to me.

He placed his hand against my forehead and everything went dark.

* * *

I woke in a soft bed, softer than anything I had ever felt in my life. I opened my eyes and saw sunlight, filtering through the open doors on the right of the room that led out to the balcony.

 _Why am I here?_

The door opened and Odin stepped through the door.

I started to rise from the bed, but Odin held out one hand to stop me.

"How are you feeling Cadence?" He asked me.

"I feel much better, but how did I get here?" I asked running one of my hands down the covers in front of me.

A dark look crossed Odin's face.

"Heimdall carried you here Cadence. Your grandmother sent you here. Do you remember?" He inquired, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Memories of Midguard flashed in my head, and everything came back to me. Loss rolled through me in waves, but why was my family on Midguard.

"Why was my family on Midguard?" I looked up into Odin's face.

"Well your family immigrated there to start a new life. They wanted to see what it was like, but I'm sorry it turned out this way." He responded solemnly.

I didn't say anything.

The breeze picked up, ruffling my hair.

"The Midgardians do not respect people who are different. I warned your grandmother not to take you there, but she did not listen. When your father died in that accident, I believe she wanted to get away for a little bit." He continued. "But at least we were able to rescue you Cadence. Now why don't you come downstairs for some breakfast? You look like you could use a good meal."

I nodded slowly. He rose to his feet and glided over to the door.

I rolled out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom. I stripped the clothes from my body and walked into the large shower. The warm water felt good on my skin, curing my body of its aches. When I walked out of the bathroom, a long green dress waited for me on my bed.

I grumbled under my breath.

 _I hate dresses._

I slipped it on over my head and tied my hair up into a tight braid. Obsidian was on my wrist swirling around like a snake, waiting, almost like it was antsy. I left the room, walking slowly in what I hoped was the right direction. There was a guy who looked about my age sitting at the edge of the hallway. His black hair was slicked back on his head, and he was pressed up against the wall reading.

"Good book?" I said smiling.

He jumped, obviously scared that I had caught him. His bright green eyes, made my breath catch.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you." I stuttered out, suddenly embarrassed.

A smile worked its way across his face.

"No it's okay. I was just really absorbed in the book. It is really good." He said smiling wider.

I nodded and started to walk past him.

"Hey wait!" He shouted standing up and trying to catch up to me. I stopped so we could walk side by side.

"You're Cadence right?" He asked me, his eyes seemed to grow brighter.

"Yes, but I would prefer you called me Cade."

"I'm Loki."

"It's nice to meet you." I said returning his smile. "Do you know where the kitchen is? I'm starving."

He chuckled lightly. "It's actually that way." He responded pointing behind us.

I stopped walking and turned around slowly. "Of course it is." I sighed heavily.

"It's okay I will show you were it is. Maybe we can eat together." He said.

"That sounds nice."

"Well then, this way Madam." He bowed and offered me his hand.

I laughed and grabbed it tightly. "Thank you."

"Anytime." He declared.

I wasn't afraid of what the future would bring, but it was the past that I had forgotten.


	3. Chapter 3: Allies

After breakfast Loki showed me around the Palace. The wind blew through the open patio that we were walking through, ruffling the bottom of my dress.

 _Why did you wear this dress?_

"So, you don't like dresses?" Loki said smirking at me.

"Did you just read my mind?" I raised an eyebrow and pretended to be mad.

"No. I didn't. I just-," He stuttered out, his face growing red.

And it was incredibly cute.

"You just what?" I asked turning around and looking up into his face. His shocking green eyes, shone in the light of the sun, and it took everything I had to not brush away the small cluster of raven colored hair that had fallen into his face.

"I meant to say, you look nice in green." He muttered looking down at the ground.

I felt a blush creep into my cheeks. I reached out and placed my index finger under his chin, lifting his face to look at me.

"You don't look too bad in green either." I breathed, smiling widely at him.

His face turned an even brighter red, and I loved it.

I withdrew my hand slowly from his chin, but as I did he grasped it in his own hand holding it softly like it was something precious.

He pulled me forward through the open hallways of the palace, never letting go of my hand, and I never wanted him to let go.

"Loki!" I heard a voice shout and turned to look to the left. There was a training space, big and open, swords, shields, spears, and other weapons laid in shelves on the edges. In the middle of the semi circle a muscular guy with long blond hair stood, a huge hammer held tightly in his hand. He smiled widely at Loki, but then focused on the opponent in front of him. His opponent was at least twice his size, and height, but the blond didn't seem fazed at all.

"Who is that?" I asked Loki, not letting go of his hand.

"That is Thor." Loki said through pursed lips. It was like his entire mood had changed, he wasn't smiling at all or blushing. He was just watching Thor coldly.

Thor dropped his hammer into the sand of the arena and faced off against his opponent, amazingly lithe for someone so muscular. His opponent threw a punch catching Thor in the jaw, cracking open the skin. He staggered back a steps and put one of his hands to his face and touched the cut, pulling back his hand to look at the small trace of blood on it. He laughed loudly and punched his huge opponent. Thor's punch sent his opponent hurtling through the air, and into the large columns surrounding the perimeter.

"I told you that no one can defeat me, Volstagg not even you!" Thor bellowed happily. He turned focusing his attention on Loki and me, walking smoothly over to us.

"You must be Cadence. My father told me that we had a visitor from Midgard. It is wonderful to meet you, and I am sorry about your loss." Thor said taking my hand and kissing it.

I felt Loki stiffen next to me.

"Thank you, and I actually prefer Cade." I replied smiling, as I removed my hand from Thor's grasp slowly.

"Did you enjoy the show?" He said smiling, motioning behind him at Volstagg who was rising from the pillar slowly, his red hair billowing out on the dirt around him.

I shrugged casually. "It honestly wasn't much of a show"

Loki chuckled under his breath. Thor's grin widened.

"And what would be a show to you?" He challenged, a mysterious glint in his eyes.

"Oh you'll find out." I teased him, smiling.

The wind seemed to pick up in the clearing, lifting my dress a few inches.

 **"Don't do this Cade."** I heard Loki's voice whisper in my head.

I smiled at him, and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. **"I know what I'm doing, don't worry."** I thought back to him. Another dark look crossed his face.

I let go of Loki's hand reluctantly, and took a step past Thor into the sand in the arena. I turned to face Thor and let Obsidian shift into a axe in my hand.

"Care to join me?" I taunted him, letting a smirk cross my face.

Thor's threw back his head and let laughter roar out of his mouth. "You're going to fight me in a dress, Cadence?" He scoffed, refusing to use my nickname.

"Absolutely. You don't have a problem with that do you, Goldilocks?" I asked him casually.

He only laughed in response and moved into the sand opposite me.

I glanced over at Loki. He was leaning against one of the concrete pillars, watching us intently. I took a voluntary step forward, and realized how ridiculous I was being.

I held up my hand. "Give me one second," I said to Thor, dropping Obsidian to my knees and cutting through the silk of the dress. The ends hung in tatters against my knees, so I probably didn't look my best.

 _Oh well, at least I can move._

"Let's do this." I said confidently, staring up into the face of Thor. He was at least two heads taller than me, I had never been the tallest person in the world, but I liked it. I liked to let my opponents underestimate me.

His hammer flew into his hand, electricity crackled in the air.

"Are you sure you want to do this little one?" He asked me, a large smile splitting his face.

"Absolutely." I replied calmly, not letting the smile leave my face.

"You know what? I'll let you use the sword, but I'll put Mjolnir away." The wind picked up once more, ruffling his hair enough to let it catch the light, making it turn the color of wheat. He dropped his hammer into the sand, where it sat with the handle sticking upright in the air.

I looked back to the edge of the arena and in the shadows, a woman about my age with dark brown hair stood, frowning. If looks could kill I would be dead, she had a sword in her hand, the edge of it rested on the sidewalk, but every once in a while the light would catch it, sending a flash of sunlight into my eyes. She was obviously jealous, I chuckled under my breath and turned my attention back to Thor. He was waiting for me to make the first move.

"Oh are you waiting on me? What a gentleman." I exclaimed letting a bit of sarcasm into my voice. I dropped Obsidian into the sand next to me, the blade slicing deep into the earth under our feet.

"I don't need a axe to beat you Thor." I said bending my knees and raising my hands in front of me.

He chuckled low under his breath, his blue eyes turning a stormy grey.

His attack came swiftly from the right, but I ducked under his arm and twisted so that I was standing behind him. I threw a kick at his exposed back, and I made contact with it, pushing him onto the sand. He rolled over on his back, and kicked himself back up, so that he was facing me once again.

"Not too bad." He mused, shifting from foot to foot.

"Eh, I do okay." I muttered, not taking my eyes off of him.

He tossed a look at the girl in he shadows, and shrugged. His eyes came back to mine, and he flashed another confident smile.

 _He still wasn't worried, that's cute._

I flashed forward, my right hand outstretched, Thor raised his hand to catch my fist, but at the last minute I pulled back and ducked towards his muscular chest, my fist slamming into his abdomen. The force of my punch propelled him backward into the cement pillars behind him. A nasty crack rang through the open arena as he smacked into the pillar. I could see the crack of the pillar running down the side, like a spine. Thor wasn't moving, and for a split second I thought he was dead, but then he groaned loudly.

Volstagg threw his head back and laughed loudly. "You are the first one to ever best Thor in combat!" He boomed, as he slapped his hand on my back. I jolted forward a few steps, but smiled nonetheless.

Thor got to his feet steadily, a sheepish smile on his face. "You may be little, but you pack the punch of a thousand men." He said laughing. He turned to face the girl in the shadows. "She might be a better warrior than you Sif!"

A dark look crossed over her face, and she stomped away towards the city, grumbling under her breath.

'I wonder why she is so upset." Thor mumbled, as he stared after her.

"She is probably just jealous that Cade beat you when Sif has been trying for the past 100 years." Volstagg said happliy. "But let's go celebrate, drinks on my friend." He bellowed, patting Thor on the back.

"Fine. I guess I deserve that." He grumbled, but let a smile work it's way across his face. He called Mjolnir to his hand and began to walk towards the palace with Volstagg close behind him.

I made eye contact with Loki, who winked and gave me an encouraging smile.

I felt something in my stomach flip flop, and I suddenly wasn't worried about staying here. I pulled Obsidian from the earth, it became like water wrapping around my hand, and up my arm forming an intricate circlet around my head.

 **"Well, that was impressive."** Loki's voice washed through my head like silver.

 **"I was trained by the best."** I replied modestly, walking over to the pillar he was leaning against.

"That much is obvious." He muttered, taking my hand in his. Warmth spread through my body when our hands touched.

"Cadence, Loki, come on let's go!" Thor bellowed from a good waze down the hallway.

Loki sighed.

"We don't have to go if you don't want to." I whispered to him, my hand finding his cheek.

"No. It's okay. I just don't like crowds that much." He mumbled, his eyes glancing towards where Thor had gone.

"I promise that I will hold your hand the entire night if I have to." I replied confidently, making him blush.

"Promise?" He whispered moving his face closer to mine.

His breath washed over my face, and I looked at his lips, which were only an inch away from mine.

I raised my eyes to his eyes that had turned a dark emerald color, and before I could stop myself I leaned forward and brushed my lips against his softly.

I pulled back suddenly embarrassed by what I had done. We had only met today and maybe this was a bad idea to make someone who was obviously my friend something more. But before I could open my mouth to apologize, his lips were against mine once again, pulling me into a searing kiss that made the world disappear around me.

And that was the beginning of the end.


	4. Chapter 4: The Coronation

**Present Day... 318 Earth Years Later**

The sunlight streamed through the open windows, the curtains fluttering in the slight breeze that blew across the eastern mountains. Asgard lay out under the palace, glowing in the sun like a jewel. The bed underneath me was warm and soft, and I never wanted to leave it.

"Cade." I heard Loki whisper sleepily. "Cade are you asleep?"

"Yes," I mumbled into my pillow.

He chuckled. The bed shifted with his every movement. I felt one of his arms encircle my waist, pulling my back square against his chest. He buried his face into my brown hair, which was wild and untamed, fanning out over the pillows like an angry cloud. Proof of our midnight rendezvous. He didn't seem to mind.

"Cade..." He hummed into my hair.

"Still, asleep." I said giggling.

"Oh really?"

He moved his face out of my hair, to my shoulder, and began to kiss it, his stubble tickling me.

I laughed into my pillow. Suddenly he began ticking me ferociously.

"No, no stop it! Stop it!" I screamed, laughing and writhing on the bed. Turning over so that I was on my back, with Loki hovering over me.

"Oh so now you're awake?" He asked me giving me the smirk that I loved so much.

He had my wrists pinned over my head. I rolled my eyes. He moved closer to me pressing his chest against mine.

"Yes I suppose so." I whispered.

"It's about time." He said smiling, his eyes ablaze with mirth.

"Well, I did have a late night, and you know how I need my beauty sleep." I drawled. My lips rising into a smirk.

A low moan rose from his chest and escaped from his lips. I kissed the tip of his nose softly.

"Good morning." I breathed.

"Good morning." He replied, his warm breath washing over my face.

He leaned down and captured my lips in a passionate kiss, releasing my wrists.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his body closer to me. His hands moved down my body caressing my hips when-

 ****knock, knock, knock****

I froze my hands, wildly grasping Loki's hair. He turned his head and looked lazily at the door.

"Who is it?" He asked raising his voice.

We heard somebody clear their voice on the other side of the door.

"It's Alaric your highness. I'm just here to remind you that the coronation will begin in 45 minutes." The voice said.

Loki rolled his eyes and sighed.

"I'll be ready in a little bit." Loki said turning back to me. He began to kiss my exposed neck.

I heard Alaric cough awkwardly.

"Perhaps you are ready, but I doubt that Lady Cade is." I heard Alaric say.

Loki started laughing, shaking the bed. I felt myself blush deep red, from the tips of my feet, to the roots of my hair.

"Thanks Alaric!" Loki shouted, a wide smirk on his face.

I slapped him hard on the shoulder, which made him only laugh harder.

I rolled my eyes, and began untangling myself from his grasp. I stood up from the bed and stretched, all of my bones cracking in the right places, enjoying the sensation.

I stood up from the bed, my nightgown swishing around my knees, and turned back to look at Loki. He was sitting up in bed, his arms propping him up. His bare chest was glinting in the sun. He was watching me intently, a lazy smile on his lips.

I felt myself blush again.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked him.

"Like what?"

"Like the cat that are the canary."

"I'm just really happy. Can't I be happy?" He asked me smirking.

"No," I said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes.

"Okay I have to go get ready for the coronation."

A dark look flashed across his face.

"What's wrong?" I asked him. I walked over to him and sat on the bed beside him.

"It's nothing, I just..." He paused and looked away from me.

I placed one of my hands on the side of his face, and slowly pulled his face towards mine again.

"I'm fine." He mumbled, placing his right hand over mine on the side of his face.

"I know that you are upset because of Thor becoming king but..." I sighed.

"Cade, I'm fine." He said softly.

"No. I don't think that you are. You can't trick me like the others, you know that. You can't hide things from me." I said smiling, moving closer to him so our shoulders were touching.

"I can always try to." He said smirking.

I laughed and laid my head on his shoulder. "You can try, but it won't work."

He sighed. "That's debatable." He argued, a sly smile on his face.

He chuckled and began stroking my back. His mouth was on my shoulder, his other hand slowly encircling my waist, trying to pull me back into the bed.

"Hey, watch it silver tongue. We both still need to get ready for the coronation. If I'm not ready in time, your mother will kill me, and you for that manner." I said trying to get up from the bed."

"Just five more minutes." He whined smiling.

I laughed. "No, come on. It's time to get up."

"Ugh, fine!" He moaned throwing off the covers. I kissed him one last time, and winked at him, before teleporting back to my room.

* * *

I barely slept in my room anymore, when I did nightmares of my last day on Midgard would plague me. I could still remember the bodies of my sisters burning, still remember their screams for help, as they dragged me away to the river. When I slept with Loki in his room, I didn't have nightmares. He could always sense when I had bad dreams, sometimes he would have to shake me awake, but he was always there to wipe away my tears.

When I appeared back in my room, Echo woke up from the corner. He yawned opening his mouth wide, flashing his fangs and shaking out his silvery fur. Getting slowly to his feet he padded over to me almost silently, and pressed his large furry body up against my waist.

I had rescued Echo from Jotunheim, on a quick trip that was supposed to be peaceful, but turned into a fight. Odin had brought me along with him to help him discuss the ever crumbling peace treaty he had with Laufey. Odin allowed me to come with him on trips outside of Asgard, because he knew what a good fighter I was, and if I was going to train the next generation of Valkyrie, I needed as much experience as I could get. As we were leaving I heard a wolf howling in the distance, crying for help. I found Echo, just a pup, alone with his foot caught in a trap. It took an hour of coaxing the rabid wolf into letting me help it, but ever since then Echo hasn't left my side.

I reached down and scratched him behind his ears. He made a low sound in his chest almost a purr, and pressed himself into me harder, almost knocking me over.

"Whoa Echo. You're not a puppy anymore." I said to him, scratching him harder. His bright blue eyes met mine, a mischevious look passing through them.

"Don't even think about it." I warned him, but it was too late.

He jumped up placing his giant paws against my chest and knocked me backwards into my bed.

"Echo!" I shouted pretending to be angry. His tongue came down and licked the full length of my face, leaving a trail of saliva.

"Ew!" I squealed trying to push him off of me. He gave me a wolfy grin and laid his head down on my stomach.

"Echo I really have to get ready for the coronation, so can you please let me get up?"

He let out a sigh and got up silently, sitting at the foot of my bed.

I sat up and spotted dark green dress on the back of my door, it was hanging there taunting me. My lip curled up in disgust.

 _Did I say that I hate dresses?_

Frigga made sure that I knew to wear a dress, she even spent a whole day with me and the royal dressmaker. Which made me feel like a giant pin cushion, but it was nice I guess. I never really got to have times like that with my mom, she was never the same after my dad's accident, she didn't really smile anymore after that.

I shook my head to get rid of the memory and tried to focus on positive things. This was a big day, one of my best friends was becoming king.

Honestly, dresses are so pointless when you are fighting. The corsets are so tight that I can't breathe let alone strike an opponent down, and dresses are so long that they become a hazard when fighting because an opponent could grab you by it. Then again I did beat Thor in a dress the first day we met, however long ago that was. Sif has been rubbing it in the past few days that she doesn't have to wear a dress. Ever since I got here she has been a total bitch to me, always making snarky comments under her breath.

I feel bad for her. She keeps trying to get Thor's attention, but he will never see her as more than a friend.

 _Oh well, maybe she deserves it..._

I got up and flounced into the bathroom to take a quick shower. The warm water ran down my body, relaxing any tension I still had about today. As I dried off , uneasiness crept over me, and I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

I slipped the corset on over my head and used my telekinesis to tighten it. I raised my arms straight up over my head and grabbed the dark green dress telekinetically pulling it on.

Obsidian was writhing around my wrist like a snake, I placed my hand on the cool metal to calm it against my skin.

As I looked in the mirror to examine myself, I heard a knock at my door.

"Coming," I shouted as I crossed the room.

I opened the door slowly. Frigga stood there in a gorgeous golden gown that made her look like she was gliding across the floor.

"Your majesty." I said bowing slightly.

"Oh please, Cadence you don't need to bow." She said as she gliding into the room.

Echo stood up at full attention, and began to wag his tail as he saw Frigga. She walked over and scratched him right under his chin. He opened his mouth and let his tongue roll out, smiling at the sensation.

Frigga laughed, and continued to pet him.

She turned to look at me again. "That dress is so beautiful on you, but your hair is wild right now." She complimented me.

Her hands came up into my damp hair and began to weave it into an intricate large braid that fell down my back. Obsidian slithered up my arm and into my hair to form a small circlet around my head. A hum went through the metal, no doubt trying to calm my nerves.

 _I'm great in battle, but in a room full of people that are all looking at me not so much._

Frigga's hand came under my chin so that I was looking up into her face. "You are so beautiful. Your grandmother would be so proud of you."

"Thank you." I whispered, smiling shyly at her.

She looped her arm in mine. "Let's get going. We don't want the coronation to start without the queen."

And with that she led me out the door.

* * *

When we arrived, Frigga was immediately whisked away to walk down the aisle. I was to walk down the aisle solo, no doubt as a last minute form of punishment from Thor himself. He loved making me uncomfortable, and yet he was my best friend.

"Cadence." I heard someone bellow my name. I turned slowly and spotted Thor jogging up, his red cape swirling behind him.

"Thor." I said smiling.

"Well don't you look nice." He complimented.

I rolled my eyes at his candidness. "Wow, flirting with your brother's betrothed, tsk, tsk." I teased him.

Thor blushed for a second, his face becoming the same color as his cape. He took another step towards me. "Trust me Cadence, if I liked you, you wouldn't know." His eyes met mine, and a look crossed through them that I had never seen before.

I opened my mouth to speak, but at that moment a squire came and pulled me away towards the giant doorway leading to the ceremony.

My breath caught in my throat as I was thrown in front of the hoard of people in the throne room. Everyone was smiling and clapping at me, but my knees went weak.

 _Come on Cadence, you can do this! It's just like being in a fight except people don't want to kill you. Relax._

I took a deep breath and began the trek down the aisle towards the ornate golden throne, where Odin sat stoic staring at me. Loki looked up at me from where he was standing at the right of Odin's throne, and I caught his eye. His mouth dropped open as he looked at me, his eyes taking in what I was wearing.

 **"Cade, you look, you look so-"** He stuttered through my head.

I blushed, feeling the pink creep into my cheeks.

 **"Is it possible that I made the great Loki speechless? Miracles do happen."** I told him, a smirk spreading on my face.

As I reached the throne I curtsied in front of Odin, and found my place on his right, next to Loki.

 **"You don't look so bad yourself."** I said taking Loki's hand in mine.

 **"That's true."**

I bumped my hips into his and laughed under my breath.

He squeezed my hand. **"But green is definitely your color."**

A thunderous roar exploded from the room as Thor strutted down the aisle, his cape billowing behind him.

 _He was quite the showman, no wonder he was going to be the king._

Thor made eye contact with me and winked. I laughed and looked over to where Sif was standing on the left of Odin's throne. She was glaring daggers at me, as usual, jealousy pouring off her in waves.

As Thor knelt before the throne in front of Odin, the crowd quieted down and Odin's scepter came down to the floor with a boom that echoed through the entire room.

"Thor Odinson, my heir, my first-born,entrusted with the mighty hammer, Mjolnir. Forged in the heart of a dying star. It's power has no equal, a weapon to destroy, or as a tool to build. It is a fit companion for a King. I have defended Asgard, and the lives of the innocent across the Nine Realms, in the time of the Great Beginning. And now the day has come for a new King" Odin said, his voice echoing through the large room easily.

No one spoke, no one moved, all were watching with full attention, except one person. Loki.

I looked up into his face, and he wasn't looking at Thor or Odin, he was looking out the window to our left, looking out over Asgard.

I squeezed his hand reassuringly, trying to make him feel better, trying to let him know it was okay that Thor was going to be king.

"Thor, do you swear to to guard the Nine Realms?" Odin continued.

"I swear!" Thor shouted enthusiastically.

"Do you swear to preserve the peace?" Odin said louder.

"I swear!" Thor yelled raising Mjolnir.

"And do you swear to cast aside all selfish ambition, and to pledge yourself only to the good of the realms?" Odin said holding out his scepter towards Thor.

"I swear!" Thor said loudly standing up and raising Mjolnir.

As soon as Thor uttered those words, a chill of dread ran through me.

 _Something's wrong._

Obsidian moved off of my head and worked it's way down into my hand, still just a chain, but growing warm against my hand.

I let go of Loki's hand slowly. He looked away from the window, and made eye contact with me, worry flashing in his eyes.

 **"Something's wrong."** I told him.

"Then I on this day proclaim you..." Odin stopped mid-sentence, and I knew he felt it too.

I shifted my armor onto me, my dress melting away. Obsidian lengthened in my hand becoming a wickedly sharp axe.

 _I hoped it wasn't bilgesnipe._


	5. Chapter 5:A Cold Place

I had never been down to the vaults before, and I wasn't looking forward to it. I followed behind Odin, Loki, and Thor silently, still gripping Obsidian tightly in my hand. Echo was padding silently behind me, the only sound coming from his nails scratching against the floor. When we arrived in the vault everything was frozen, and the vault itself was so cold that I could see my breath in front of my face. Echo moved forward and pressed his giant body against me, warmth radiating from under his fur. Odin walked forward to examine a giant blue box on a pedestal on the far wall of the room as Thor stooped low onto the ground examining the bodies of the fallen guards.

Loki stood next to me un-moving. He had been acting really weird since the ceremony, not really saying anything.

"The Jotuns must pay for what they've done!" Thor roared standing up, anger flashing in their eyes.

"They have, with their lives." Odin said calmly, examining the square box glowing blue. "The Destroyer did it's work, the Casket is safe, and all is well."

"All is well?" Thor shouted, Mjolnir started to spark to life, electricity humming in the air. "They broke into the Weapons Vault! If the Frost Giants had stolen even one of these relics..."

"But they didn't." I said trying to soothe Thor's anger.

 _He has always had a bad temper, as long as I have known him. Letting it all out now in front of Odin is not a good idea._

Thor whirred to look at me.

"I want to know why!" He said just as loudly.

"We have a truce with Laufey." I shouted back, starting to get angry.

Loki placed his hand in mine.

 **"Cade, it's okay."** He hummed through my mind.

"He just broke that truce!" Thor reasoned turning back to Odin. "They know we're vulnerable."

Odin finally looked up from the casket and trained his eye on Thor. "What action would you take?" He asked him, still in a calm voice.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Loki pulled me backward against his chest. **"Just let them talk it out. If Thor wants to make Odin mad then let him."** He said, wrapping his arms around my waist.

I allowed Obsidian to shift back into a bracelet on my wrist.

 _I really don't want to cut Loki. That might ruin the mood._

"March into Jotunheim as you once did, teach them a lesson, break their spirits so they will never try to cross our borders ever again!" Thor said eagerly.

"You are talking as a warrior." Odin replied taking a step towards Thor.

Echo started shifting back and forth. He could sense a fight coming, and I could too.

"But this was an act of war!" Thor shouted louder. He looked at me to try and get me to agree with him, but I said nothing. Loki squeezed me tighter against him.

Worry was swirling inside of him, and something else, something he was shielding from me.

 **"Loki, it will be all right."** I murmured, pressing a kiss to the tip of his chin.

"Their plan was doomed to fail. We will find the leak and seal it." Odin continued, still in a calm voice.

"As the king of Asgard-" Thor began to say.

"But you're not king!" Odin shouted, finally loosing his cool.

A chill crept into the room, and Loki stiffened behind me, realizing what Odin had just said.

"Not yet." Odin finished, a taunting smile on his face.

Thor stormed away, electricity crackling in the room around us.

Loki and I started to leave as well, but Odin stopped me.

"Cadence could you stay here a moment?" Odin asked me, a stoic expression on his face.

"Yes, my king." I said bowing my head. "Loki can you take Echo and go try to calm down Thor. Make sure he doesn't electrocute anyone please."

Loki nodded slowly and began to walk away with Echo following close behind him.

I turned back to look at Odin. He was no longer standing up straight, but was leaning against the pedestal holding the blue box.

"Are you all right?" I took a step towards him, ready to help him to his feet.

He nodded and waved me away. "At the moment, but I can feel the Odinsleep coming quickly."

"Oh."

"Cadence I just wanted to ask you to watch over Thor and Loki. The pull to go into the Odinsleep is much stronger and I fear that I will not be able to guide them much longer. I need you to be the shoulder they can lean on Cadence, you have to promise me that." Odin said to me.

"Yes of course. I will always be there for Thor and Loki. I promise." I responded immediately.

He smiled and stood up straight.

I slowly went up the stairs and went full speed to find Loki and Thor.

* * *

"This is madness, just madness!" I heard Frandral shout from a room ahead.

I pushed open the doors suddenly. "What did I miss?" I shouted.

Loki and Thor were standing by the back windows that where open showing the glory of Asgard. The sky was getting darker, almost to the point of rain, but it was probably Thor.

The warriors three were clustered to the side, with Sif standing with them.

"We're going to Jotunheim." Thor shouted merrily.

"Nope, no way. Not after the discussion you just had with your father! There is no way we are going." I said.

Sif turned around and stared coldly at me.

 _We weren't even on Jotunheim and I was already having chills._

"Would you look at that the little Valkyrie is scared!" She taunted me.

"Sif, if you keep talking this little Valkyrie is going to rip your head off." I retorted, smiling sweetly.

Echo let out a growl from where he was sitting next to Loki.

Thor laughed at my threat.

"Now my friends, let's not fight! I know that this journey may seem impossible, but I know it will be worth it." Thor said trying to inspire us.

"Fine I will go, but only to make sure you don't do anything stupid." I said casually.

Loki chuckled under his breath and stood up. Echo looks around the room, and sighed before getting to his feet.

 _I guess he was coming too._

We made our way down the rainbow bridge quickly, but we wouldn't be able to sneak past Heimdall. In his own words he could "see all.", plus we needed him to open up the Bifrost.

He was waiting for us, his speculation all over his face.

"I got this," Loki whispered and took a step forward. "Good morrow Heim-"

Heimdall cut him off abruptly, "I know you wish to go to Jotunheim, you are not dressed warmly enough."

I pulled my dark cloak around me tighter.

"Do you think that you can deceive me? Today of all days? Not one enemy has ever made it past my defenses, until this very day." He said in that calm voice of his. His golden eyes looked at us all coldly.

"Then let us go to Jotunheim and figure out what happened for you." Thor interjected smoothly.

Heimdall narrowed his eyes, but walked away from the entrance and onto the pedestal.

"What happened, silver tongue turn to lead?" Volstagg jeered as he lumbered past Loki.

"Volstagg don't be jealous that Loki is smoother than you. It isn't becoming." I teased him.

He let out a booming laugh and walked to the swirling opening in the wall.

 **"Are you sure about this?"** I asked Loki.

He placed one of his hands against my face and turned it towards him.

 **"I promise I won't let anything happen to you Cade. Have I ever broken any of my promises to you?"**

I shook my head. His lips softly brushed mine, and I met them with mine just as eagerly.

"Hey, love birds come on!" I heard Frandral yell.

I pulled back and looked at everyone waiting for us. I focused on Thor and saw something cross over his face, but it was gone as soon as I saw it.

As Heimdall opened the Bifrost, he shouted a warning, "I swore an oath to protect Asgard, and if letting you back endangers Asgard, I will leave you on Jotunheim to die in the cold."

Echo growled in responce.

"Heimdall you are just as positive as I remember." I shouted over the roar of the Bifrost.

A twitch of a smile pulled at his lips.

"Couldn't you just leave the Bifrost open for us?" Thor asked him.

"To leave it open would unleash the full power of the Bifrost onto Jotunheim, destroying you and Jotunheim." He replied calmly.

"I have no plans to die today." Thor announced a broad smile on his face.

"None do." I murmured under my breath.

Heimdall turned and looked at me. He opened his mouth to speak, but whatever he said next was lost as we were pulled into the Bifrost.

* * *

 _If you've never been to Jotunheim all you need to know is it's cold and it snows, and it all looks exactly the same. I have heard so many stories of Asgardians dying in the wilderness of Jotunheim because they had no idea where they were going. I had only been to Jotunheim once with Odin, the time that I got Echo, and that one time was enough. Last time I said I would never come back. Laufey was a creepy guy and the last time I was here, he offered Odin several hundred of his ice crystals, in exchange for me. A story that when I told Loki he laughed like a maniac and said I should have stayed with a frost giant, because they would make me happier than a normal Asgardian guy._

We landed in the middle of a frozen plateau, the thunder of the Bifrost echoing around us, across the frozen terrain.

"So which way?" I asked Thor. "Should we flip a coin?"

"My gut says that way." Volstagg said, pointing out in front of us.

"And that is never wrong!" Frandral teased, laughing.

Sif rolled her eyes, just as saucy as usual.

We set off towards the North, hoping that we were going the right way. A frozen palace, rose in front of us, sitting in ruin, no doubt from the last war.

Laufey sat in the shadows of the ruined building, lounging in a frozen throne a sly smile on his lips.

"You've come a long way to die Asgardians." Laufey challenged from his throne.

My eyes crept to the edges of the ruins around us, noticing the frost giants hiding in the shadows.

 _Well we are surrounded. Great._

Echo growled, his hackles raising. His gaze was focused on the closet frost giant, his lips pulled into a snarl.

 _He must remember what happened here._

"I am Thor Odinson." Thor shouted, his voice echoing.

"I know who you are boy." Laufey snapped. His gaze turned to me. "Have you come to accept my offer?" He said leering, his gaze racking over my body.

Obsidian lengthened into a huge sword in my hand, almost the height and width I was. I raised it in a challenge for him to come closer to me, my lips pulling back into a snarl.

Laufey chuckled. "I'll take that as a no then."

Loki stepped in front of me protectively, a wicked smirk on his face.

"We are not here to discuss that." Thor bellowed. He too shifted his stance to stand in front of me.

"Unfortunately." I heard Sif murmur under her breath.

 _Can I get one break? One small break?_

"How did your people get into Asgard?" Thor said this, electricity began to hum in the air.

Laufey was still leering at me, but he finally shifted his cold black eyes to look at Thor. "There are traitors in the house of Odin."

Storm clouds began to form quickly above us, thunder rumbling across the sky. "Do not dishonor my father's house with your lies?" Thor bellowed angrily.

"Your father is a murder and a thief. Why did you come here? To start a war? You crave it! You are only a boy pretending you are a man." Laufey spat standing to his feet.

"This boy has grown tired of your mockery." Thor growled low.

"Thor stop and think. Look around you we are out numbered." Loki whispered quickly in his ear.

I leaned forward putting my free hand on Thor's shoulder.

"Don't let Laufey get to you. He wants this war more than you do." I said trying to calm Thor down.

He turned, his bright blue eyes finding mine.

"Thor please. Let's go." I pleaded with him.

He locked his jaw, but I knew he would stop.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Loki turned to Laufey. " We appreciate you generosity." He said with a wave of his hand.

He grabbed my hand and turned around walking back the way we had come, but as we walked back a frost giant stepped in front of us, blocking our path.

"Cadence will stay. The rest of you are free to go." I heard Laufey say calmly, still standing.

 _Shit._

I turned to face him. "Why me?"

"You are the last Valkyrie in existence, something that I wish to have at my disposal." He smiled at me, showing yellow teeth.

"Unfortunately that is not going to happen." I whistled loudly and Echo lunged on the frost giant in front of us instantly tearing out his throat. The blue black blood of the giant splattered onto the snow.

"Damn." Loki muttered under his breath drawing his knives.

Frost giants exploded from all around us, crawling all over the snow.

A wicked smile gleamed on Thor's face as he charged the hoard of frost giants rising from the ground like a swarm of bees.

I charged in behind him swinging my sword at anything that moved. Echo flanked me, slashing with his claws and tearing at frost giants that dared to come near us.

 _Why me? Laufey could have anybody else. Why me?_

I heard Volstagg cry out in pain to my left. He was grasping his arm, that had turned blue from the cold.

"Don't let em touch you!" He bellowed as he swung his axe into the nearest frost giant.

 _Okay and they can't touch you. How did Laufey think this relationship was going to work?_

A frost giant came out of the ground in front of and attempted to grab my leg. I swung my sword down and cut off his head clean off.

I let Obsidian shift in my hand, becoming dual blades, letting me go hand to hand with a frost giant on the right.

He laughed at me, probably thinking about my size no doubt.

 _It's not my fault I'm short, but sure underestimate me._

He swung his fist down into the ground, ice rose in sharp spikes and raced towards me. I rolled out of the way, my blades in my hands. I raced forward catapaulting myself off the ice, and driving my two knives into his back.

He screamed in pain and tried to reach around himself to grab me, but I was too quick. I dug the knives in deeper, tearing through the front of his chest. I pulled with all my might, and severed the monster in two.

 **"Loki, where are you?"** I thought desperately trying to find him in the chaos.

I rose off the ground and flew in the direction I thought he had gone, looking through the mass of bodies for a flash of green.

I found him.

His arm was in the grasp of a frost giant, but Loki wasn't screaming in pain. His entire arm was becoming blue, almost like he was shifting. I had seen Loki shape shift before, but this was just odd. I landed beside him and drove my sword through the frost giant in front of him.

"Loki are you alright?" I asked him, pulling his blue arm towards me, so that I could look at it. His wrist gauntlets had cracked and fallen off in the cold temperature of the giant's grasp.

 _That's impossible, he should have lost his arm, but it was fine. It was actually turning back to it's usual color._

"I think so." Loki whispered to me softly, still looking down at his arm. He looked me in the eye, fear flashing behind his.

I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could I saw Frandral go down.

"Loki we have to go now." I grabbed him and pulled him towards Frandral.

Volstagg had him by one arm and Sif had him by the other.

Echo materialized out of the shadows, his usual grey coat now spotted with black blood. He seemed happy, which was kind of unnerving.

As we made our way towards the way we had come in, frost giants rose around us.

"Do you ever give up?" I said angrily.

Thor landed in front of us and slammed his hammer into the ground, successfully clearing the way.

"Miss me?" He asked me, having way too much fun.

"No." I said frowning.

He rolled his eyes. "Come on."

We ran over the frozen terrain, with the entire frost giant army on our heels.

 _Heimdall is definitely not going to open the Bifrost._

Loki was by my side, silently gliding next to me, not talking.

When we reached the cliff, Thor cried out for Heimdall, but nothing happened.

"Okay, new plan. Not dying!" I shouted and raised Obsidian in front of me.

 _That is a lot of frost giants._

Thor stood beside me, his hammer raised in a challenge.

"I like that plan." Sif said holding out her sword as well.

 _Wow the first nice thing she has ever said to me, right before we die._

Laufey was leading his giants right towards us.

"Well, Cadence if you had stayed I would have spared your friends, but now I guess not." He teased with a gleam in his eyes.

"I'd rather die with them, than ever be with you." I snarled.

Anger flashed in Laufey's face, and as he lunged forward a brilliant beam of light cut through the darkness of Jotunheim. Odin appeared in armor of gleaming gold upon a giant black horse.

"Yes father! We will finish them together!" Thor shouted a crazy smile on his face.

 _Really?_

"Silence!" Odin bellowed, a murderous look on his face.

"Allfather, you look weary." Laufey taunted.

"Laufey, end this now." Odin said ignoring Laufey's jeer.

"Your boy sought this out, and now there is only war."

"Then look at these actions as a boy being foolish." Odin continued.

"They have shed blood. We are beyond diplomacy now." Laufey cocked his head to the side, finding me behind Odin. "But if you are willing to acknowledge our deal, maybe I would make an exception."

A chill went through me, and I tried really hard not to throw up.

Loki placed his hand in mine, trying to comfort my nerves.

"No." Odin said flatly.

"Then your boy will have what he wanted, war." Laufey snarled.

"So be it." Odin challenged.

As Laufey and his men charged forward, Heimdall took us back to Asgard swiftly.


	6. Chapter 6: Looks Can Be Deceiving

"Get him to the healing room now!" Odin roared at Volstagg and Sif as soon as we landed. I turned to follow them, but Odin grabbed me by the arm roughly holding me in the room. "No you stay!"

I swallowed the lump in my throat and stood tall waiting for the oncoming storm.

"Why did you bring us back?" Thor demanded, not backing down from Odin.

"Do you realized what you've done?" Odin shouted still not releasing my arm, holding it so tightly I could feel a bruise forming.

"I was just trying to protect our home." Thor shouted back. He was still grasping his hammer tightly in his hand.

"You can't even protect your friends, how do you expect to protect the kingdom." Odin replied loudly. He shoved me towards Thor for emphasis. "Laufey was going to take Cadence. You went to Jotunheim to fight and you brought the one thing he wants the most!"

"I wasn't going to let him have her father. I would never let anything happen to her." Thor said. He looked at me, and took a deep breath, his eyes softening. "Cadence I wouldn't have let him have you."

I nodded slowly. Echo came up next to me and pressed himself into my side. Loki still hadn't said anything, but he was hovering on the other side of me silently watching the drama unfold.

"But we cannot be afraid to act! The Jotuns needed to pay for what they did." Thor continued looking back at his father. "They need to fear me like they once feared you!"

"That is not leadership, that is vanity. You have forgotten everything about what I taught you, about a warriors patience." Odin responded angrily.

"You can wait with patience while Asgard falls. All the other realms laugh at us, while you sit on the throne and wait! The old ways are done, and you stand there giving speeches and lectures to me while Asgard falls!" Thor shouted, his voice echoing around the expanse of the room.

"YOU ARE A VAIN CRUEL GREEDY BOY!" Odin roared thrusting his scepter out towards Thor.

Thor took a step forward challenging his father. "AND YOU ARE AN OLD MAN AND A FOOL!"

Odin shook his head, and an uncomfortable silence settled on the room.

"You're right. I was a fool, a fool to believe that you were ready to be king." Odin murmured.

A chill settled right in the pit of my stomach.

"Father." Loki said softly taking a few steps towards Odin, but Odin cut him off with a shout and a wave of his hand.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I knew something was wrong.

"Thor Odinson, you have betrayed the commandments of your king. Through your arrogance and stupidity you have opened these realms and innocent lives to the horror and desolation of war!" Odin raised his scepter in front of him and threw it down into the pedestal opening the Bifrost. He lunged forward and began ripping apart Thor's armor. "You are unworthy of these realms and unworthy of your title! You are unworthy of the loved ones you have betrayed!"

 _No._

I took a step forward towards Thor, tears forming in my eyes. Loki grabbed me and held me back against him.

"Odin please. It's my fault don't blame him for this! I could have stopped him, but I didn't." I shouted struggling against Loki's grip.

Odin ignored me, stepping up slowly to the pedestal.

I made eye contact with Thor. His usual bright blue eyes, were stormy gray.

"I now take from you your power." Odin pulled Mjolnir from Thor's hand. "In the name of my father, and his father, and his father, I Odin you father, CAST YOU OUT!" he shouted as a bolt of lightning shot forward slamming into his chest and pushing Thor into the Bifrost bridge.

"NO!" I shouted struggling harder against Loki's arms. "No!"

" **Cadence, you need to gain control of yourself."** Loki said coldly through my mind.

 _He never did that. He never snapped at me that way._

Odin raised Mjolnir to his lips and whispered, "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." He threw the hammer into the swirling Bifrost.

I took in a shaky breath.

Odin turned slowly to us. "Loki leave us!" He shouted.

Loki slowly let go of me and stalked down the rainbow bridge, with Echo following slowly behind him.

Odin's eye was on me, anger flashing across his face.

"I'm so disappointed in you Cade. After I told you to watch Thor and Loki you do this? I took you into my palace and practically raised you and this is how you repay me?" He yelled, his face turning red.

I looked down at the ground, not trusting myself to speak.

"I should have sent you too." He snarled as he stomped away towards the palace.

My breath caught.

 _I swore I would never go back to Midgard. Not ever, not after what happened there. I feared for Thor. He was going to be swarmed by people, would he be burned at the stake also. What would happen to my oldest friend._

* * *

The fire crackled loudly in front of Sif and me as we lounged on the leather couch. Volstagg was still nursing his partially frozen arm, Hogan was helping him apply a salve that was supposed to be helping him. Frandral sat to our left holding a cup tightly in his hand, while Loki hovered behind us.

"We should never have let Thor go to Jotunheim!" Volstagg said angrily.

"You know there was no stopping him. Once he makes up his mind he always has to do it." I replied softly staring into the flames.

"Well rather be banished than dead, which is what we would be if that guard hadn't said anything." Frandral mused.

"How did the guard find out anyway?" Sif asked. She was unnaturally stiff in her seated position and I knew it was because she missed Thor.

 _We all did._

"I told him." Loki murmured from his position behind us.

Every single head turned to look at him.

"What?" Frandral said his eyes blazing.

"I told him to go to Odin after we'd left. He should have been flogged for taking so long, we never should have reached Jotunheim." He said cooly.

 _Well this is new._

"You told the guard?" I asked him calmly.

"Yes. I saved our lives. Especially yours Cade, you saw the way Laufey was looking at you. If Odin hadn't showed up well-" He stopped abruptly not wanting to finish his sentence. He swallowed and continued. "I had no idea that father would banish Thor."

Sif rose quickly from the couch. " You must go tot the Allfather and ask him to bring Thor back."

"I love Thor more dearly than any of you, but you see how he is. He's arrogant and reckless and dangerous. You saw how he was today! Is that what Asgard needs from it's king?" Loki spat.

He began to walk from the room swiftly.

"Loki wait." I said rising from the couch.

 **"Cadence just leave me alone!"** He roared through my mind.

I stopped in shock.

 _Loki never did that. He never lost his temper with me, he never yelled at me like that. What was going on?_

"Oh must be trouble in paradise." Sif taunted me.

I lunged forward and grabbed her raising her off the ground with one hand.

"Sif I swear to you, if you throw one more rude comment in my face, I will decapitate you and give your body to Echo so he can use it as a chew toy." I spat angrily.

She gasped for air against my hand, and I lowered her slowly to the floor.

I took a few breaths. Murderous rage blazed in her eyes, but she did not attack me. She walked calmly to the couch and sat down.

"I don't care about what Loki says, he has always been jealous of Thor." Frandral said quietly trying to turn the conversation around.

"We should be grateful to him, he saved our lives." Volstagg argued.

"Laufey said, 'there are traitors in the house of Odin.' A master of magic could bring 3 Jotuns into Asgard." Hogan whispered to the fire.

"Loki wouldn't do that. Sure he's jealous of Thor, but even he has his limits." I argued.

 _But maybe I knew they were right, deep down something felt wrong. Maybe Loki did this._

* * *

I teleported back to my room, and took a shower. Letting the warm water rinse everything away. It was supposed to be a good day, but it turned bad so fast. When I was done I heard a scratching at the door, and crossed the room to let Echo in, he crouched to jump on the bed.

"Oh hell no!" I shouted grabbing him by the scruff of his neck. "There is no way you are getting in that bed with frost giant blood all over you."

He gave me a sheepish look and I walked him into the bathroom to clean him off. After 20 minutes of trying to dry his fur I gave up and flopped on my bed. I didn't want to go to Loki's room. Not after the way he brushed me off.

Echo curled up in a ball next to me, but didn't close his eyes. He wouldn't go to sleep unless he knew I was asleep.

I sighed and closed my eyes, unsure of what dreams would assail my unconscious mind.

* * *

After a nightmare filled sleep of Thor being killed on Midgard I woke up. Echo was still curled into a ball at my side, snoring soundly. I hugged my knees to my chest and looked out the window. It was late in the day, I guess my body had really needed the sleep after yesterday.

I heard a knock at my door, low and soft. I sighed loudly and rose from my bed forcing myself to open the door. Loki stood there a wide frown on his face.

"What?" I snapped my hand still on the door knob.

"Cade can I come in?" He said ignoring my tone.

"Fine." I replied rolling my eyes.

He walked into the room a few feet then stopped.

"What do you want Loki?" I said crossing my hands in front of my chest.

"My father has fallen into the Odinsleep." He said plainly.

I uncrossed my arms. "What? Is he okay?"

"Which he did after he told me that I'm a frost giant." Loki said pursing his lips.

Shock ran through me.

"What?" I stuttered.

"Aparently I'm Laufey's son. Isn't it wonderful. And we have the same taste in women." He spat at me.

"Laufey's son?"

"Yes. When Odin went to Jotunheim to destroy the frost giants he brought me back. I had been left to die in the cold by my real father. Cold bastard just like me." Loki snarled, his hands curled into fists.

"Loki don't compare yourself to him. Just because you are his son doesn't mean you are anything like him. Frigga and Odin raised you and that makes you their son." I replied, my head still spinning. I took a step towards him and grabbed his hands in mine.

He ripped his hands away from me. "And of course he told me after I got to watch you cry over Thor being sent to Midgard!" He shouted. "You know I always knew you liked him better. I knew that you would choose him. The first day we met I thought 'hey she hasn't met my gorgeous blond warrior brother yet maybe I have a chance and even though we have been together this long you still like him more." Anger flashed in his eyes.

"Loki that's not true. You know I love you. Thor is just my friend, he always has been." I reasoned with him.

He sighed heavily, and pursed his lips, not wanting to look at me.

"Loki listen to me." I moved forward and placed my hand on the side of his face. "I don't care what species or race you are. I love you more than this entire universe. So please don't be afraid that I will push you away, because I won't ever do that."

His green eyes blazed into mine, not breaking contact with me.

He sighed. "I'm sorry." He murmured, looking away.

I turned his face back to look at me.

"It's okay. I love you." I said smiling at him.

A small smile crossed his face. "I love you too."

And then he was kissing me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me to him.

"I missed you last night." He murmured against my lips.

"I missed you too." I whispered.

But even after all this, something tugged at the back of my mind.

A chill crept through me, warning me that something big was in store. Something that would change everything.


	7. Chapter 7: The Big Rescue Plan

It had been a week, a week of nightmares of Thor's demise, a week of waiting for word about him, and a week of Loki sitting on the throne of Asgard.

I was pacing in my room, driven mad by the visions of death I saw every night. I knew what I had to do.

 _I love Loki, more than anything, but Thor is still my friend, and leaving him to die in a merciless realm is not something I would do. He would come to help me, so I'm going to go get him._

I started to walk to my door, having my armor shift onto my body smoothly. Echo rose to accompany me.

"No Echo. You stay here. If something happened to me, I wouldn't want them to kill you too." I whispered patting him on the head. He whined softly, and pressed his head against my hand.

"I know boy. I love you too. Watch out for Loki while I'm gone okay." I walked out of the room, letting Echo out behind me. As I walked down the hallway I heard Frandral yelling at Volstagg.

"How have you managed to eat so much with what has been going on?" Frandral's voice echoed down the long corridor leading me right into the room.

"Stop fighting, both of you! It's not going to help Thor!" Sif shouted coming up between them.

"She's right. It's not going to help Thor." I said from the doorway.

They all turned to look at me.

"That's why I'm sick of waiting around. I'm going to go get him back." I said confidently.

"But you hate Midgard." Hogan responded a skeptical look on his face.

"Yes I do, but Thor is my friend, and he would do the same for me." I placed my hand on the hilt of Obsidian that was strapped to my waist

"But that's treason!" Frandral exclaimed.

I shrugged. "It may be treason, but I don't care."

"But what about Loki?" Sif asked, a frown on her face.

I bit my lip.

 _This was going against everything. I hated Midgard, hated what it's people had done to my family and me, but I would go to save Thor. I love Loki more than anything, and if he loved me he would understand._

"I'm going to Midgard no matter what. You can either come with me or stay here and moap." I challenged as I turned around and walked down the winding corridor.

It was a few moments before I heard them in step behind me. I smiled to myself.

 _Maybe this wouldn't be so bad._

As we neared the Bifrost, Heimdall was waiting for us, standing in the large open doorway.

"Let me guess. You saw us coming?" I teased him, not slowing down my stride.

He remained stoic in the doorway.

"I cannot commend or help you in anyway." He replied and pushed past us down the rainbow bridge.

"He's really odd isn't he?" Frandral muttered.

I turned and looked towards the Bifrost. Heimdall has left his sword in the pedestal and the portal began to open spewing color.

"Let's do this." I shouted and flew forward into the open portal.

My mind was lost in a swirl of color, but bit by bit Midgard formed in front of us. My stomach flip flopped at the thought of going back.

 _Cadence it will be okay. Don't think about the past, it is different now, you'll see._

My feet hit the ground hard, depositing me onto rocky terrain. I took a few steps to get my bearings, traveling by Bifrost kinda messes with your head a little.

 _Okay hopefully nobody tries to kill us while we are here. I honestly can't say the same for when we get back to Asgard._

I swallowed my nerves and turned to look at my comrades, who were looking around and trying to find their bearings.

I looked east and saw in the distance a cluster of buildings rising up out of the ground.

"I saw we go that way." I announced as I began to walk towards the small town.

"How do you know?" Sif snarked from behind me.

"I don't, but Heimdall has never steered me wrong, so I'm going to go into the creepy little town nearest to us." I replied coolly, and continued to walk towards the small town.

When we finally arrived the sun was directly over our heads, beating down on us.

 _This was the wrong place to wear full armor._ It was so hot, so much hotter than where I used to live on Midguard.

Weird mechanical machines passed by us as we walked slowly down the dirt street. They would make roaring noises as they passed and sharp noises whenever we would get in front of them.

 _This was not the Midgard I knew._

I was still waiting for the mass of people with pitchforks and torches to assail us from behind. I wished Loki could have been here with us. I hated leaving him on Asgard, if only things were different.

We were all walking in a line down the mostly empty street. I couldn't help, but look at everything around me.

 _I hadn't been to Midgard in 318 years, how could it have changed this much._

People stared at us as we walked and I placed my hand on Obsidian nervously.

"How do we even know that Thor is here?" Hogan questioned.

"I've got a really good feeling about this place." I replied as I scanned the buildings around us.

Finally we arrived at the end of the street, and in front of us a large glass building dominated the space. Through the glass doors I saw Thor, talking to a petite brunette woman.

"There he is." Sif exclaimed excitedly.

She was the first to knock on the glass door. Everyone waved happily, glad to see Thor.

The look on Thor's face was priceless, and the looks that the other people in the room gave us were just as funny. Thor opened the door, and pulled Volstagg into a manly hug.

The petite woman that Thor had been talking to dropped a plate, but as I fell I caught it telekinetically and stepped forward grabbing it in my hand.

"Here you go." I said gently. Shock flashed on her face, which only made me smile wider.

"Cadence, I can't believe you came!" Thor said happily pulling me into a bear hug.

"Thor, can't breathe." I choked out.

 _He must have really missed me._

"Oh, right." He whispered pulling away, a goofy smile on his face. "Did you really come here for me?"

I nodded slowly, suddenly aware that everyone was watching us.

"I'm glad to hear it. It's about time you came back to Midgard. I'm glad you came." He said smiling wider.

I blushed deeply. "Anything for my best friend."

"I'm glad all of you could come." He said brightly, looking up into the faces of our comrades. He turned to the petite brown woman next to him, clutching the plate in her hand tightly. "This is Jane Foster, and this is Darcy Lewis. Erik Selvig is the man behind you Volstagg." Thor said calmly pointing them out.

I nodded my head at each of them, still not comfortable with talking to them.

"We came to take you home Thor." Sif said, but her eyes were on the hand Thor placed on my shoulder.

"I'm honored that you came, but I can't go home." He responded in a daze.

"Wait, what do you mean you can't come home?" Frandral said taken aback.

"You know I can't. My father is dead because of me. I must remain in exile." Thor responded sadly. He removed his hand from my shoulder and turned away from us.

We all exchanged confused looks.

"Thor." I said sweetly, putting one hand on his shoulder and turning him around to face me. "Your father is still alive."

Confusion washed over Thor's face.

"But Loki said-" The ground shook with the force of an earthquake cutting off his reply.

I turned around and looked in the direction we had come, just in time to see a massive light shoot back up into the sky.

"Shit." I muttered.

I turned back to Thor. "Wait Loki told you that Odin was dead?"

Thor nodded solemnly.

 _Oh boy._

"Then that means whatever just landed is here to keep us here. Wonderful." I muttered. I pulled Obsidian from my belt, letting it lengthen into an axe.

The people in the room gasped, watching my weapon with awe.

"That is so awesome, way better than my taser!" Darcy exclaimed stepping forward to examine it. "Can I hold it?" She asked me brightly.

"Well, no." I responded calmly.

Her face fell.

"I would let you, but Obsidian has a mind of it's own. It only lets me wield it." I continued gently. "See look." I tossed the axe at Sif.

Sif caught it easily, but as soon as Obsidian touched her hand it dropped to the ground pulling her down with it. Sif struggled to lift it up.

I called Obsidian back into my hand, feeling stronger with it.

A large explosion shook the glass in the building around us.

"We have to get everyone out of here!" Thor yelled running outside.

We all followed him and tried to clear out the townspeople quickly, but I knew that whatever or whoever Loki sent would be on us soon.

Finally I saw it, rising up out of the distance.

 _Oh great he sent The Destroyer. This should be fun._

The Destroyer took steps that shook the ground beneath our feet, it's metal body glinting in the sunlight.

I was back with Thor and his new friends behind a metal machine that Thor called a car, watching The Destroyer approach. I took a step forward, but Thor fastened his hand on my arm.

"Thor what are you doing?" I asked him, my eyes meeting his.

"Let the others handle this Cade." He muttered.

"I'm a warrior too, I should be out there helping them." I angrily whispered back.

"Loki sent that thing because he is angry. If you go out there and face The Destroyer he will only get angrier." Thor retorted.

I could see how much sitting back and watching was hurting him. Thor was feeling bad because he believed that he wasn't the same person he used to be.

I turned to look at our comrades.

"For Asgard!" Volstagg yelled loudly as he charged the behemoth.

Volstagg was struck in the head and flew backwards into a building. Frandral and Hogan were knocked away, by a concussive blast that made my ears ring. Finally Sif charged forward, driving her spear into The Destroyer's open back, she confidently glared at me.

As she looked over at me The Destroyer's head began to turn around, finally lining up with her. It fired a blast directly at her that knocked her away against a car. She slumped forward and lay still.

The Destroyer's face began to glow red, and as he fired the next blast at Sif, I reached out and shielded her telekinetically blocking her from the deadly attack.

The blast ricocheted into The Destroyer and it stumbled back a few feet.

"Stay here." Thor ordered me, standing up.

I grabbed his arm and pulled him down to me. "Thor no! You are mortal now, if you do this, you will be killed. Let me face Loki." I pleaded with him.

He brushed a stray hair from my face tenderly, his hand lingered on my cheek. "Cadence I have to do this, it's the only way to keep you safe." He whispered to me, pulling my arm from his grasp. He stepped forward out into The Destroyer's line of vision.

"Brother... for whatever I have done to wrong you, whatever I have done to lead you to do this, I am sorry, But these people have done nothing to you. They are innocents." Thor said holding his hands out in surrender. "End my life now, and know that I will never return to Asgard."

"NO!" I screamed and ran in between Thor and The Destroyer.

"Loki please, don't do this. This is your brother. Thor who taught you how to shave when you were young because Odin was too busy, Thor who taught you how to fight, when Odin said you wouldn't be a warrior. If you are going to be mad at anyone be mad at me. Don't punish Thor for your father's mistakes. Blame me. " I swallowed. My heart was beating so hard it hurt. "And if you really love me, you won't do this."

There was a moment of silence. I could hear birds chirping in the distance, echoing off the buildings. The Destroyer turned away, and I relaxed, but in a split second he flashed around and shot a white hot bolt of energy into me.

The pain stung like a thousand needles, and I was suddenly aware that I wasn't on the ground. I was flying through the air swiftly, not knowing my destination. The brick wall was hard against the back of my head, and all I saw was darkness.


	8. Chapter 8: Break Ups Suck

I was aware that someone was shaking me awake, gently.

I could hear someone far away yelling my name, calling for me.

"Grandmother?" I slurred. My head felt heavy on my shoulders, a dull throb settling on the back of my head.

"Cadence, please don't die on me." I heard someone say.

I opened my eyes slowly, the bright light stinging my pounding head. Thor was holding me, gently trying to shake me awake.

I smiled. "Hey Goldilocks." I muttered.

"Oh, thank Odin you're all right." He exclaimed.

That's when I realized he was in his armor. My eyes opened wider and everything flooded back into my mind.

"Thor is everyone okay? What happened to The Destroyer?" I yelled suddenly energized.

"Hey Cade, slow down. You hit your head really hard." He said, worry in his voice.

"I'm fine. How did you get your powers back?" I pressed him.

"I sacrificed myself for the people. I guess it made me worthy to have the power my father bestowed on me." He explained.

"But what about The Destroyer." I asked him.

"I blew him up." He said grinning.

I smiled wide and laughed. "You always had a flair for the dramatic." I said.

I started to stand up slowly, but sat back down as my head started spinning.

"Hey. Don't try to get up took quick."Thor said, his blue eyes filled with worry.

"I'm fine." I argued attempting to stand up again.

In a swift movement Thor jumped up pulling me into his arms.

"Thor put me down! I can walk you big buffoon." I shouted, pushing my palms against his muscular chest, willing him to let me go.

He wasn't fazed at all. His blue eyes were a stormy grey, a sign that he was angry. I placed my hand gently on the side of his face.

"Thor, I'm fine. Please put me down." I said gently.

He nodded and slowly lowered my feet to the ground. I took a few shaky steps forward, and saw Thor reach out to catch me in my peripheral vision. I gained my footing and turned to look around me.

The brick wall I had hit behind me was cracked down the middle.

 _Well at least the hard bricks broke my fall._

That's when everything hit me.

 _Loki chose himself over me. He didn't care if I loved him, he let his jealously take over and blind him._ My heart broke inside me. _He's just like Damen. He never loved me the same way I loved him, if he did he wouldn't have cast me aside the way he did. He used me, and I fell for it. But maybe it's not too late. Maybe deep down in that frozen heart of his, he loves me. I just have to remind him._

My hair was whipping around in the wind, that was no doubt Thor calling up a storm. I reached up and tied my hair back away from my face, and took a deep breath.

"Cade are you sure you're okay?" Thor asked me quietly.

"Yeah." I huffed out. "I'm just pissed off."

"That makes two of us." Thor growled under his breath.

The warriors three and Sif were nowhere around us.

"Where is everyone?" I said turning to Thor.

"Sif and the Warrior's three all went towards where Heimdall usually opens the Bifrost, but I stayed to make sure you are okay." He responded scanning the horizon.

A large black car pulled up, and a skinny man in sunglasses got out and began to walk towards us.

"Great." Thor breathed.

I placed my hand on Obsidian, showing the man that I was armed and ready for a fight.

He ignored me, only looking at Thor. "You haven't been very honest with me Donald." He said blandly.

Thor chuckled. "No I haven't."

The man turned to me. "I am Phil Coulson. Who are you?" He asked me calmly.

"I am Cadence, Daughter of Kain the Strong." My grip on Obsidian tightened. "Granddaughter of the last of the Valkyrie, Eirin the fierce."

"Okay..." Coulson eyed the sword at my waist warily.

"Easy Cade." Thor whispered.

I shrugged and let go of Obsidian. In responce Obsidian melted and slithered up my arm wrapping around my wrist tightly.

Coulson took in a sharp breath, his eyes widened. "Where did you get that kind of technology?"

I remained silent.

"Son of Coul know this, Cade and I fight for the same cause as you to protect this world. You can count us as your allies. You can keep that trust by returning the equipment you stole from Jane." Thor replied loudly.

"Alright." He replied calmly.

"Now if you will excuse us, we have to be going." I said as sweetly as possible.

Coulson's mouth twitched, but he moved and let us pass.

I grabbed Thor's hand and teleported us to the crash site. Everyone was already there, waiting for us.

Thor looked up to the sky. "Heimdall, open the Bifrost!" He yelled, his voice carrying all around us.

Nothing happened.

Thor lowered his gaze and looked at me. "Cade can you get us back?"

"Thor, you know that I can only make portals in the same realm we are in. I can't travel between realms, it's too great a distance." I replied.

"Heimdall!" I yelled.

Nothing happened.

"Well, I guess we are stuck here." Sif said.

"I think I could get used to it." Frandral said winking at Darcy, who was standing a few feet away with Jane and Eric.

"I refuse to be stuck on Midguard forever." I growled.

Thor turned to Jane. "I must go back to Asgard, but I give you my word as soon as I deal with my brother I will return for you."

She smiled up at him, not comprehending what he was saying. Jane pulled her to him and kissed him aggressively.

 _Well, this is a little bit awkward. That's an image I can't get out of my mind._

"Thor don't say goodbye. I think we might be stuck here." I called over to him.

That's when the Bifrost opened, finally.

A roar of sound and a burst of color later, we were in Asgard.

Heimdall was currently fighting frost giants.

 _I'm gone for 10 minutes and everything goes to hell. Honestly._

My axe formed in my hand and I threw it towards the nearest frost giant which was about to stab at Heimdall's exposed back. My axe sunk into the soft tissue of the frost giant's chest. He fell to his knees, turning away from me, and as I called Obsidian back to my hand it ripped through his back.

Heimdall collapsed onto the floor.

"Get him to the healing room!" Thor yelled to Volstagg. "Leave Loki to me."

I ran after Thor. "You're not going to face him without me." I said catching up to him.

He nodded and took off flying, with me following in the air close behind him.

When we landed we ran together to Odin's chamber, to find Loki and Frigga.

"Loki." Thor said angrily.

I followed him into the room, like a shadow. Echo materialized out of the shadows in the far corner of the room, coming to my side.

"Thor!" Frigga exclaimed throwing her arms around him. "I knew you would come back!"

Loki made eye contact with me, but swiftly looked away. The only indication that he knew what he did was wrong.

Thor pushed her aside gently. "Why don't you tell her how you sent the Destroyer to kill my friends and to kill me?" Thor said to Loki, his voice raised.

"It was just enforcing father's last command." Loki said smoothly.

"You have always been a talented liar." Thor spat.

Frigga turned to me. "What happened Cade?"

"The engagement is off." I said coolly not taking my eyes off of Loki, who was staring at Thor, a wild look in his eyes.

"Well, I'd like to stay and chat, but I have to go destroy Jotunheim." Loki responded. He fired a bolt of energy at Thor from the giant scepter in his hand. Thor slammed into the wall behind him. The wall shattered beneath Thor's weight and he went sailing out the hole.

"Thor!" I yelled and shot forward, flying out the window.

He was falling quickly towards the ground, out cold.

I flew faster, flattening both arms to my sides pushing myself faster towards him. My arms finally wrapped around his body, slowing us to a stop a few feet above the ground. I lowered us to the ground slowly, laying Thor's head in my lap.

"Thor, stay with me!" I whispered. I shook him softly. "Come on Goldilocks, you have to wake up."

He didn't move.

"I'm sorry about this." I murmured raising my hand high above my head. I brought it down in a harsh slap across Thor's face.

He jolted awake. "Cadence, did you just slap me?"

"No." I said through gritted teeth, holding my hurting hand to my chest.

 _Ow. Stupid hard face._

Thor sat up slowly. "What happened to your hand?"

"I injured it when I ressucitated you." I replied.

"Let me see." Thor reached out and pulled my hand towards him. He pressed his lips to the red mark marring the middle of my palm.

"There all better," He smiled at me and stood up, calling Mjolnir into his hand. He pulled me to my feet.

"We have to stop Loki." I rose off the ground, but Thor caught my foot with his open hand.

"Cade, maybe you should stay here." Thor frowned as he spoke.

"No. I have to be there I have to make sure that he is okay." I argued.

"It's not safe." Thor replied.

"Loki won't hurt me."

"He already has!" Thor's voice echoed through the courtyard.

 _Oh right._

"I still have some traction. I can stop him in a way you can't Thor. Please let me do this." I pleaded with him.

 _Our relationship may be over, but Loki is still my friend. You can't spend as much time together as we did and not feel anything. Right?_

Thor nodded and rose off the ground.

We flew side by side towards the end of the rainbow bridge.

Loki was inside the building his scepter deep in the pedestal. Energy shot out of the pedestal and froze over, forming the branches of a giant tree. Loki was smiling more than I ever had seen him do in the past few months, something that chilled me to my core.

"Loki, stop this!" I shouted.

He laughed, a cold sharp sound that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. That's when I realized he looked just like Laufey. "You can't stop it. The Bifrost will grow until it rips Jotunheim apart." He said with glee.

Thor rushed forward hammer raised to break apart the pedestal, but Loki met him mid-air with a bolt of energy from the scepter.

I put up a telekinetic shield around Thor, ricocheting the bolt into the wall.

"Loki why are you doing this?" I yelled. I still hadn't drawn Obsidian, but I didn't want to. I wanted to know why, I just wanted answers.

"Why?" He laughed. "Thor took everything away from me. The crown, the glory, and you!" He roared, murder in his eyes.

"What do you mean he took me away?" I responded, confusion clouding my senses.

"You always liked him better. He was the strong one, the handsome one, why be stuck with the weak brother when you could have the king of Asgard!" Loki raised his scepter towards me menacingly. "And when you found out what I really was you ran away to Midgard to save my dear brother. You didn't want to be with a monster." He spat.

"Loki that is outrageous. I love you I always have, but you let your jealously cloud your mind. You see what you want to see, not the whole truth. Thor is my friend, nothing else." I argued.

"Liar!" Loki yelled. He shot a bolt of energy at me, and I rolled to the left out of the way.

"I never thought of you as any monster. I loved you for who and what you were, the only thing that took me away was your jealousy pushing me into a corner." I spat, my anger rising.

"Loki, Cadence is just my friend. She is nothing else to me." Thor said smoothly, trying to calm Loki down.

"Shut up!" Loki shot another beam at Thor, this time catching him in the chest and throwing him backwards.

"I am going to prove to father that I am the better son, and when I am king, I will make sure that you are sent back to Midgard to live forever in exile!" Loki yelled turning to me.

"Don't do this Loki. Don't push me away." I said, tears forming in my eyes.

"You did this to yourself." He spat and turned to Thor.

Loki advanced on him, the scepter raised in his hand. "I never wanted the throne, I just wanted to be your equal. So let me prove myself. Fight me!" He shouted smacking Thor with the scepter sending him flying across the room.

Thor rose to his feet swiftly. "I will not fight you brother."

"I am not your brother!" Loki purred. "I never was."

"Loki this is madness." Thor said, still trying to reason with him.

"Is it madness? Is it?" Loki looked around the room wildly. "What made you so soft brother? Don't tell me it was that woman!"

Thor looked away.

"Oh it was! I might pay a visit to her after I destroy Jotunheim." Loki teased, a cold look on his face.

Thor yelled, and charged Loki, electricity blazing in his eyes.

As they met in mid-air a ripple of energy washed over the room.

 _Okay I seriously need to stop this fight._ I watched Thor tackle Loki to the ground bringing his hammer down, but Loki blocked it with the scepter.

 _Or maybe I could just watch and hope they work it out._

The Bifrost crackled with power around me.

 _Or I could figure out how to stop that._

As that thought moved through my mind, Thor tackled Loki propelling them both through the wall of the building.

I ran out onto the rainbow bridge. Loki was hanging onto the bridge by his fingertips and Thor was advancing on him slowly, his hammer raised.

"Thor don't do this. That is your brother!" I shouted.

Thor lowered his hammer and reached down to help Loki up, but he dissolved in Thor's hand.

 _Mirage._

Loki appeared behind him driving the scepter into Thor's side, pulsing energy into his body sending him over my head towards the Bifrost portal.

"Loki, it doesn't have to be this way. We can still stop this together." I reasoned with him, moving myself so that I was between him and Thor.

 _I still wanted to hold on, to think that one part of him still loved me, but deep down I knew I was wrong. He was cold, and I was the idiot that fell for it._

"There's no stopping it." Loki smiled at me.

I felt the bridge shake beneath my feet. I turned around to look at Thor. He had his hammer raised and began bringing it down hard on the bridge itself.

Loki's smile vanished quickly and he took a step forward. "What are you doing?"

Thor didn't answer, he only brought the hammer down again.

"If you destroy the bridge you'll never see her again!" Loki shouted, fear in his voice.

Thor still didn't answer.

Loki charged forward, and in that moment Obsidian became a long spear in my hand.

"Don't you dare." I growled.

He laughed. "We both know you can't kill me my love."

"You don't control me Loki." I snarled.

"Are you sure about that Cade?" He replied a smirk on his face.

My favorite smirk. The one that I would have killed for, the one that always made me kiss him.

I opened my mouth to speak, but at that moment Thor broke through the bridge, the giant ripple of energy throwing us backward.

I was thrown backwards onto the intact bridge, but Thor and Loki were thrown into the open air.

Odin appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Thor's shoe. Thor and Loki were both holding onto the scepter, hanging in mid-air.

I raced to the end of the bridge ready to pull everyone up.

Loki made eye contact with Odin. "I could have done it father! For you! For all of us!" Loki called sadly.

Odin shook his head. "No Loki."

Loki looked at me, sadness in his eyes. "I'm sorry Cade." and then he let go.

"NO!" I screamed throwing myself forward off the bridge, towards Loki.

 _I wasn't going to let him die._

He was falling too quickly, getting sucked into the black hole that was forming beneath us. I could almost reach him, when I felt a hand grab my leg tightly.

I looked up into Thor's stormy eyes. "Thor let me go! I can save him! Please!" I shouted kicking at Thor's hand. He held on.

Odin pulled us up slowly. When I reached the top, I tried to jump off again, but Thor held me against his chest.

"Loki." I sobbed, screaming out his name. I fought against Thor's grip, but he only held on tighter. "Thor you big idiot, let me go! I can save him!"

He collapsed to the bridge, bringing me down with him, clutching me tightly to his chest.

"No, you can't save him Cade, he's already gone. I can't lose you too." Thor murmured into my ear.

I curled into his chest and sobbed, his arms warm around me. He whispered comforting things in my ear, but I knew he felt it too. I knew he felt the world end.

* * *

I was sick of being hugged, sick of having everyone say "I'm sorry for your loss."

Loki was gone, that the only thing I knew. He was gone and he believed that I hated him.

I pulled the covers up over my head, blocking out the noon-day sun. Echo was on the end of my bed, lounging languidly. He seemed to know what had happened, he always did.

I curled into a little ball beneath my sheets and cried for what felt like the hundredth time.

 _Get yourself together Cade._ I chanted to myself, but my eyes ignored the command, continuing to spill tears.

I heard the door open, and felt the bed sag as someone sat down on it.

A hand came down on my back, rubbing softly.

"Cade you have to get out of this room." I heard Thor say softly.

"I don't want to." I mumbled.

He continued to rub my back. "Cade it's been a week."

"So." I mumbled into a pillow.

"I miss him too." Thor said almost inaudible.

I felt him slowly peel back the covers on top of me. The sunlight blinded me for a moment, but then I focused on Thor's face as I sat up.

"You cut your hair." He said shocked.

I nodded, pulling one hand up to my hair that now just barely brushed my shoulders.

Thor reached out and moved a piece of hair out of my face.

"I just didn't want it in my way anymore." I whispered.

"I like it." He replied smiling.

I didn't return the smile.

"Okay, come on!" Thor said rising from the bed swiftly.

"What?"

"Come on, we are getting you out of this cave of a room." He said enthusiastically.

"I don't want to leave." I whined getting back under the covers.

"That may be true, but I'm not going to let you turn into a drag on society." He reasoned. He ripped the covers off of my head once again.

"Thor, didn't you hear me! I don't want to leave!" I yelled.

"I don't care Cadence! You can't just hide in this room forever!"

"Loki is gone Thor!" I shouted, fresh tears spilling down my face. "He's gone and he died believing that he was a monster. Believing that I thought he was a monster." I curled my legs up in front of me, holding on to them tightly.

Thor pressed his lips together in a tight line.

"I was stupid Thor! I thought that when I was with Loki, things were different, but news flash I was wrong. He was just like Damen, he didn't love me and I was the idiot who fell in love!" I sobbed.

Thor was next to me on the bed in a flash.

"Cade don't say that. Loki did love you, he was nothing like that trash you used to be with on earth. He just let his jealously cloud his judgement." Thor said soothingly. He wrapped his arm around me, rubbing my shoulder softly.

"I should have seen it coming. He was acting so weird and I knew something was wrong and I just let it go. I should have pressed him, we could have worked this out. Nobody had to die." I whispered, leaning into Thor's chest.

Echo stood up and came up behind me, curling his body around Thor and me. Echo hummed softly, putting his head in my lap as I dropped my knees.

"Loki had his mind made up, he was always stubborn and you know it. You couldn't have changed his mind." Thor murmured into the top of my head.

I nodded and wrapped my arms around his chest.

"We just have to keep going, be an example for the rest of Asgard." Thor said.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"What?" He smiled.

"You sounded like a king there." I replied.

"Well I should." He reasoned.

I pulled my arms from around his chest and hit him.

"Don't be a jerk."

He snorted. "My jerkiness actually just made you smile thank you very much."

I laughed loudly.

"Now come on. I want to see if after all this I can beat you in a fight." Thor said rising to his feet.

I jumped off the bed a wide smirk on my face.

"Well your highness. You already know the answer to that."

Thor looked at me expectantly.

"No."


	9. Chapter 9: Have You Heard The News?

I walked confidently down the long corridor with Echo at my heels. Odin had summoned me to the throne room, with a state of urgency that I could not ignore.

As I entered through the giant doorway I saw Heimdall, Thor, Odin, and Frigga clustered before the giant throne that dominated a huge portion of the room.

"I'm sorry I'm late." I called, my voice echoed through the large room, reverberating off the gold pillars that stretched all the way to the ceiling.

When I finally got close enough to see their faces, I could see that Frigga was crying.

"My lady, what's wrong." I said suddenly worried.

Heimdall turned and looked at me, his golden eyes cold. "Loki is alive."

 _Three little words. Three little words that made me stop dead in my tracks. It had been one year. One year of mourning, one year of finally getting over everything that had happened._

I took a step back.

 _Honestly why am I surprised? This is just like something Loki would do._

"How long have you known?" I asked Heimdall, trying to keep my voice even.

"Two days." He replied.

"Two days? And I'm just finding out now!" I shouted, suddenly angry.

"Cade has a point she and I should have been told as soon as you found out." Thor said evenly.

"We were unsure as to how it would affect you both." Odin said calmly.

I took in a few breaths, trying to calm down.

"But where has he been the past year?" Thor asked Heimdall.

"I don't know. Someone was shielding him from me." He answered mysteriously.

An unnatural breeze rushed through the room, chilling me to the bone.

"Who has that kind of power?" Frigga said, gaining her voice.

"I don't know." Heimdall replied.

 _That's a little dramatic._

"Where has Loki surfaced?" Thor asked breaking the silence.

"Midgard." Odin replied. A crow flew in from the open doorway and landed on his shoulder.

Echo stared up at it, and licked his chops.

"No Echo." I whispered.

He whined and sat down still looking at the bird.

"I want to go bring him back." Thor said loudly, looking over at his father.

"Without the Bifrost, that will be difficult." Heimdall interrupted.

"I want to go too." I said confidently. Everyone turned and looked at me. "If anyone should get him back it should be his brother, and his... friend." I finished.

 _Can't say his love anymore, I guess._

Odin, brought up one hand to stroke his beard considering what we were saying.

"It would take alot of power to get to Midgard." Odin replied still thinking.

"I can get us there. It will take a lot of energy, but I am more powerful than I was. I can get us to Midgard." I claimed, taking in a deep breath.

"Are you sure?" Odin asked skeptically.

I nodded. "I have been practicing."

 _When Loki "died" I went through so much pain and stress, that it unlocked my powers. I had been able to only teleport in the same realm, but now I could make portals and travel through all the realms. It took an enormous amount of energy, but I had been getting better at drawing on the power of my ancestors, which in turn gave me other powers I didn't realize I had._

"I will allow it, but you must bring Loki back." Odin answered. "And the tesseract."

"Wait the tesseract has surfaced as well?" Thor said suddenly anxious.

"Yes, and the humans are trying to do something big with it. I don't think it's a coincidence that Loki has reappeared at the same time the tesseract has." Heimdall said ominously.

"Well then we will bring that back too." I reasoned, itching to go.

 _I might hate Midgard, but the last time I was there no one tried to kill me, which was nice._

"What do you need to prepare." Odin drawled.

"Nothing." I replied. Obsidian grew warm on my wrist, no doubt ready for a fight.

"Nothing." Thor echoed.

"Alright, I will allow the journey." Odin said.

"Be careful both of you." Frigga said giving Thor and me a hug.

"Bring him home Cade." Frigga whispered in my ear.

"I will not let you down, my lady." I replied, giving her a small smile.

Heimdall, Odin, and Frigga all stepped back from Thor and I.

Echo whined softly, and looked up at me.

"You know I'm not going to leave you here, don't be a baby." I teased him.

I reached out my hand towards Echo, concentrating. He melted away, his body like mist and wrapped himself on my arm, forming the shadow of a wolf on my left forearm.

"You ready?" I asked Thor casually.

He nodded, letting his full battle armor shift onto his body. I allowed mine to shift onto myself as well.

 _We had to be ready for anything. Loki might still be holding a grudge._

I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes in concentration.

"Grandmother, give me strength." I chanted. As I spoke these words, her power washed over me like lava, strengthening my power. I focused hard on the energy and created a portal in front of Thor and me.

"Be warned, some others have taken an interest in him!" I heard Heimdall say.

Thor took my hand, and we stepped into the dark portal.

* * *

We landed on a mountain. The moon was bright and fat in the sky.

Weariness washed over me, and the urge to sleep was very strong.

 _No. I have to find Loki, get it together Cade._

"Cade, are you alright?" Thor said really concerned, putting one of his hands on my shoulder. "You look really pale."

"I'm fine." I said waving his hands away.

Thor shrugged and looked up into the sky. "Where do you think he is?"

"Well, my power should have sent us to this exact spot, so Loki must be around here somewhere." I reasoned, looking around.

I looked up into the sky and saw a shadow cross over the moon.

"Thor..." I began to say.

"I saw it." He replied rising into the air.

I followed close behind him, all weariness gone in that moment of excitement. We rose swiftly and realized that there was a giant metal structure flying in front of us.

"What the hell is that?" I said to Thor.

"I think Jane called it a plane. Do you think he's in there?" Thor shouted over the roar of the wind.

"My powers have never steered me wrong." I replied, my sight on the metal plane that blended in with the night. "Thor can you give us some cover please, I feel exposed out here."

Thor nodded and the sky roared loudly around us. Clouds rolled in covering the landscape below us and the moon above, the only thing I could still see was the plane in front of us.

We landed onto the cool metal roof of the plane, shaking it beneath us.

"I'll go in and get him." I shouted to Thor.

"Cade, are you sure you want to go in alone?" He replied.

I nodded. "I can handle anyone and anything in this plane Thor, and if I can't Echo will be right there with me."

He shook his head. "Okay."

I took a deep breath, balancing myself on the roof of the plane, and placed my hands on the smooth metal, concentrating hard. A portal opened beneath my feet and I landed in a crouch inside the plane.

Loki was strapped to the wall, while a small group of people stood towards the front of the plane. There was a man in weird metal armor and a man dressed in red, white, and blue, a giant shield strapped to his back.

"What the hell?" The man in armor exclaimed, turning to me.

"Cade!" Loki exclaimed, actually smiling. I waved my hand and telekinetically severed the straps that bound Loki.

The man in armor raised his hand towards me, a bright glow emanating from the palm. "If you make one more move I will fry you like an egg." He threatened.

The man next to him removed his shield from his back, positioning it in front of him.

"I don't want any trouble." I said calmly.

"Then don't touch Loki." The man in the red, white, and blue replied.

"Sorry. Can't promise that." I shrugged and grabbed Loki's arm, telekinetically throwing open the back door of the plane. Wind whipped at my hair as the air rushed through the open door.

I lunged forward pulling Loki with me towards the open sky, as the man in the suit of armor opened fire. He shot a bolt of energy that crackled above my head as I leaped from the plane.

"Thor, come on!" I shouted, flying quickly to the ground, trying to put as much space between me and the metal man as possible.

Loki was holding on to me tightly, his arms wrapped around my waist, and for a second I imagined that nothing was wrong. I imagined that the past year hadn't happened and everything was okay, but as my feet struck the ground everything flooded back. When we landed, Loki didn't let go of me. He held onto my waist tightly with one hand and pulled my face towards his with the other.

"Cade you have no idea how much I missed you." He purred, pulling my lips closer to his.

 _Is he really going to kiss me?_

Thor landed suddenly, and ripped Loki away from me.

"You have no right to do that, not after everything you did." Thor said angrily.

"It's nice to see you too brother." Loki quipped, still not taking his eyes off of me.

 _There was something wrong with his eyes, I couldn't place it, but something just seemed off._

"Where is the tesseract?" I asked him calmly. I could still feel my heart beating out of my chest.

 _Had I wanted him to kiss me? It had been a year and I still wasn't over it._

"I missed you too Cade." Loki replied winking at me.

Thor growled. "Do we look to be in a gaming mood!" Lightning flashed across the sky, and thunder rumbled loudly.

"You should both thank me. With the Bifrost gone, how much power did the Allfather have to muster to get you both here." Loki jested.

"None." I replied coldly. "I did it."

Shock filtered over Loki's face, but he recovered. "Then you must have gotten more powerful than when we last met." He said.

A vision of the bridge flashed through my mind, but I shook it off.

Thor moved forward, placing his hand on Loki's shoulder. "We thought you dead."

Loki laughed coldly. "Did you mourn?"

"We all did." I murmured.

"You cut your hair." Loki said suddenly. "Because of me?"

I didn't answer.

"Father said-" Thor began, but Loki cut him off.

"Your father!" He spat.

"We grew up together, played together, he is your father just as much as mine. Do you not remember that?" Thor reasoned with him.

"I remember a shadow. And when I rule this realm I will no longer be under that shadow." Loki said looking away from us.

"This realm is under my protection." Thor growled.

"And you're doing a marvelous job by the way. People slaughter each other while you moap around on Asgard. Where is the justice in that?" Loki taunted.

"You speak of justice, but you cannot understand that or ruling if you think yourself above your own people!" I commented loudly, over the howling wind. "The throne would not suit you."

"I have seen things that you cannot even imagine." Loki roared pushing Thor away from him. "I have been shown the real power of the tesseract and when I wield it..."

"Who has shown you this power? Who controls the would be king?" Thor snarked.

"I am a king!" Loki roared angrily.

"Not here! Loki please give up this poisonous dream and come home." I replied softly, putting my hand on his shoulder.

He paused, and looked at me.

He looked so frail and hurt that it wounded me to think of his exile.

"Come home with me." I whispered.

His hand found my cheek, stroking it softly.

"I can't Cade." He murmured.

Thor came closer to us. "Listen brother..." Thor said, but then he was cut off as someone slammed into him propelling him over the edge of the cliff.

The spell was broken and I stepped away from Loki.

"What the.." I watched Thor and the man who tackled him tumble through the air, and land in the giant forest of trees below us.

"Loki, stay here. I will be right back." I said over my shoulder.

"Cade wait!" I heard Loki yell as I launched myself over the edge of the cliff flying to where Thor and the metal man had landed.

"Do not touch me again." Thor growled to the man.

"Then don't let her take my stuff!" The man replied gesturing at me.

"You have no idea who you are dealing with." I snarled letting Obsidian lengthen into a sword in my hand.

"Well that was really cool." The man said looking intently at Obsidian. "Is it some kind of nanonite technology?"

"Nan- what?" I sputtered really confused.

"It doesn't matter. I'll just take it from you when I beat you." He said confidently, letting his helmet close on his head.

"This is beyond you, metal man. Loki must face Asgardian justice." Thor shouted, holding Mjolnir aloft.

The man in metal laughed then lunged forward to slam into Thor, but I was too quick. I grabbed his arm before he could make contact with Thor and threw him into the nearest tree. Thor let loose a bolt of lightning that slammed into the man pinning him to the fallen tree.

He stood up calmly. "Did you really just try to electrocute me?"

"Depends on how you look at it." I taunted, raising Obsidian in a challenge.

He shot a bolt of energy at me from the palm of his hand, but I rolled away. The second time I wasn't so lucky.

He shot another bolt at me, and I raised Obsidian in front of me, shifting it smoothly into a shield deflecting his shot, back at him. He flew to the right narrowly escaping the bolt of energy.

"You're pretty good." He complimented.

"I better be. I've been practicing for over 300 years."

"You don't look a day over 250." He replied. I could hear the smile in his voice.

 _Okay, he's funny._

He lunged forward successfully tackling Thor and sending him into the trees behind us. He raised Thor's head to his and head butted him. Thor didn't even stumble.

 _Oh he shouldn't have done that._

Thor head butted him back, sending him soaring across the clearing that we had made.

At that moment the man in red, white, and blue landed with a large piece of fabric holding him upright. As he landed he removed a backpack from his shoulders letting the fabric fall to the earth, his shield was instantly in his hand, holding it out towards us.

"I don't want to fight you." He called.

"Oh really? Because I really want to fight you." I called smirking at him. "Echo off."

Echo melted off of my skin, and formed quickly in front of me, a giant gray wolf with piercing blue eyes.

"Hold up is that a wolf?" The man in armor asked, completely confused.

Echo let loose an ungodly snarl that made even the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

"We have all fought enough!" The man in armor said.

"Yes." The man in red, white, and blue agreed. "So how about you put the hammer down and put the wolf away."

"Yeah no, he loves his hammer, I wouldn't do that." The man in metal said, but it was too late.

"You want me to put the hammer down?" Thor roared. Thor launched himself forward and slammed his hammer down hard on the man's shield. A shock wave of sound kicked up dirt and wood all around us throwing Thor back into the tree line.

 _Great._ I put a telekinetic shield around Echo and I, but I couldn't reach Thor.

 _Oh well, he's a big boy he can handle this, plus I really don't want any splinters._

When the dust cleared, I dropped the shield. We were all standing together in the clearing now.

"Are we done here?" The man with the shield asked Thor.

He nodded.

"Great." The man in metal said sarcastically.

 _What now?_

I thought as I turned back and looked at Loki on the mountain above us.


	10. Chapter 10: New Faces

"So we are hiding on top of a giant Midgardian ship in the sky?" I whispered to Thor as the small metal plane landed.

The two men who revealed themselves as Tony Stark and Steve Rogers walked off the plane onto the deck of the giant floating ship.

"Yes." Tony said from in front of me.

Echo was walking slowly next to me, I hadn't wanted to put him back on my arm. I liked having him out next to me, it made me feel safe.

Loki was walking silently between Thor and I. He hands were bound and he had a mask over his mouth preventing him from speaking.

 **"Do the Midgardians really believe I just need my mouth to speak?"** He said telepathically to me.

 **"They believe in the power of physical force, and do not recognize the power of the mind."** I replied smiling.

Loki looked over at me.

 **"I missed your smile most of all."** He continued.

 **"Loki..."**

 **"No Cade we really need to talk. In private."** He nodded towards Thor.

Echo nudged my leg, turning me towards the door that would allow us to descend into the belly of the ship.

The guard behind us poked Loki in the back pushing him forward, Loki stumbled a step and I shot a murderous look at the guard, who cowered under my gaze.

More guards joined us as we walked through the door, but before they could take Loki away, he squeezed my hand. They surrounded Loki and Thor pulled me away from him, so that we could follow after Tony and Steve who were going in a completely different direction.

 **"Thor, what is going to happen? I don't think they will let us take Loki."** I told him telepathically.

He sighed. " **I'm not sure Cade. I have a good feeling though, and when has that steered us wrong?"** He thought, sending me a smile.

 **"Loads of times! Your idea to go to Jotunheim made you have a great feeling. That day that got us thrown in the dungeons of the light elves in Alfheim, you literally said 'I have a good feeling about this'. Two weeks of eating rotten fruit Thor. Two weeks!"** I replied coolly.

Thor snorted.

Tony and Steve turned to look at us and I gave them a winning smile.

 _My telepathy was mostly a secret that Thor and I used in battle. It had gotten stronger when Loki left, just like all the other powers I had suddenly unlocked._

The hallway we were walking down opened up into a giant room filled with people sitting at different kinds of desks. Huge windows let in natural light from the outside. The sun was rising quickly starting yet another day.

A man wearing a huge black coat and an eye patch stood in front of us. His hands were crossed in front of his chest, but I wasn't afraid.

Echo eyed the man warily, and leaned into me, trying to comfort me.

"So you two are who everyone is talking about." The man with the eye patch said calmly. His eye sank down to look at Echo, then rose back up to look at Thor and me. "I am director Nick Fury."

Thor spoke up, placing Mjolnir on the glass table next to us. "I am Thor Odinson, and this is Cadence, daughter of Cain the strong."

"Why are you here?" Fury asked.

"More importantly why do you have a huge ass wolf?" Tony asked from his seat at the glass table next to us.

I laughed under my breath. "We are here for Loki and the tesseract." I replied.

Steve sat up at mention of the tesseract. He and Tony sat at the glass table beside a red haired woman, and a small nervous looking man in glasses.

The man in glasses stared at me and I gave him an encouraging smile, he immediately looked away a red color on his cheeks.

 _Okay that was adorable._

"Well Loki is under our watch now, and until he tells us where the tesseract is we will not be giving him to you." Fury said just as calmly.

Obsidian melted down my arm and shifted into a sword in the sheath on my waist.

"We will help you find the tesseract." Thor replied, placing his hand on my arm.

 **"Not now."** He told me.

I took in a deep breath and moved my hand to relax at my side, rather than on the hilt of Obsidian.

"Wait, how did you do that with the sword?" The man in glasses exclaimed at the table, standing up.

"Obsidian has a mind of it's own." I replied coolly. I placed my hand back on it, and pulled it out of the sheath. "It is whatever I want it to be." I concentrated and let Obsidian shift into a axe, then a large silver bow, finally settling back on a sword and sheathing it at my side once more.

"That's incredible!" Tony exclaimed leaning forward against the table.

I shrugged. "It mimics any weapon I deem fit."

"With that kind of technology-" Tony began to say before he was cut off by Thor.

"Obsidian is not to be tampered with, it is Asgardian technology and will remain as such." Thor said gruffly. "Back to the task at hand. Loki has an army called the Chitauri, and he means to lead them against your people."

"An army from outer space?" Steve asked.

I nodded. "They are not of this world or any world that I know of. They are quite brutal, I have read books of their race. Nobody knows where they came from, only that they leave destruction in their wake."

"So he's having Selvig build a portal to bring them here." The man with the glasses concluded, taking a step back from the table.

"Wait, Erik Selvig?" I asked. "Thor isn't that Jane's friend?"

Thor nodded awestruck. I felt worry cross through Thor's mind.

I took his hand in mine.

 **"Hey look at me."** I said calmly. Thor turned and made eye contact with me. "Erik is going to be okay Thor."

He bit his lip, but nodded agreeing.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell." The red-haired woman said coolly. "He has Erik and one of ours."

"Mind control?" Thor asked.

She nodded.

Thor looked back at me. "You think you'll be able to break the control."

I shrugged. "I should be able to, but I'll have to be around him to break the spell."

"I just want to know why Loki let us catch him." Steve said.

"I don't think that we should be focusing on Loki, the guys mind is like a bag of cats. You could smell crazy on him." The man with glasses said.

I snorted, and nudged Thor in the shoulder. He sent me a dark look.

"Crazy or not, Loki is Asgardian and my brother." Thor replied, still frowning.

"He killed 80 people in two days." The red haired woman said flatly.

I shrugged, "He's adopted."

Thor laughed and bumped his shoulder into mine.

No one else thought it was funny.

"Loki stole something called Iridium." The red haired woman continued.

"Iridium? Why would he need Iridium?" The man with glasses replied.

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony said rising from his chair and making his way over to where Fury was standing.

"Does Selvig need any kind of power source?" Steve asked, looking utterly confused from where he was sitting.

"Well he has to heat the cube to a higher temperature to make the portal open." The man with glasses said quietly.

" I don't believe we've met, but your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of how you turn into an enormous green rage monster, Dr. Banner." Tony said making his way over to the man in glasses grabbing his hand tightly.

 _An enormous green what?_

I shot a look over at Thor, who laughed at my reaction.

"It's Bruce actually." The man with glasses replied slowly easing his grasp away from Tony.

At that moment a tremor ran through my body, making me reach out and grab the nearest chair to steady myself. Concern flashed across Thor's face as he grabbed my shoulders steadying me.

"Cade are you okay?" He asked me.

I pressed a hand to my head. "Yeah, I'm just really tired. My day is starting to catch up with me." I smiled weakly at him.

Thor looked over at Fury. "Is there a place here that we can retire to? It's been a long day for both of us."

He nodded. "Natasha escort them to their rooms."

The red haired woman rose from the table and motioned for us to follow her. Thor made a move to pick me up and I waved his hands away.

"Don't even think about it." I warned him. He laughed at my ferocious look, but moved backward removing his hand. He picked up Mjolnir off the table and followed behind the woman. I turned and began to walk behind her, letting out a high pitched whistle for Echo to follow me.

We followed Natasha through the winding corridors, finally arriving at a closed door.

"This room is for you Cade." She turned and pointed to the room on the opposite wall. "And this room is for Thor. In the morning we expect a full explanation about Loki and his army."

"Thank you." I said to her, giving her a small smile.

She nodded and walked away quickly back towards the main room.

I turned and opened the room quickly, with Thor following me. I collapsed into the bed in the middle of the room. I could hear Echo snorting around and saw him jump into the chair in the corner of the room. I felt the bed dip as Thor sat down next to me. He exhaled loudly and threw himself back on the bed.

I laughed loudly, my voice muffled by the mattress.

"Cade." Thor murmured softly.

"Mhmmm." I groaned into the bed.

"Why do you think that he's doing this? Why do you think he hid for so long?" Thor said. I could hear the pain in his voice.

I raised my head off the bed and looked at him. His face was downcast in a frown, but he stared upwards at the ceiling.

"Thor, look at me." I mumbled. He turned his head and made eye contact with those stormy blue eyes of his.

"Loki is difficult to understand. He always has been. I used to think that I did understand him, but now I'm not sure why he does the things he does." I said.

Thor looked away. "I thought it would be different this time."

"Did you see him Thor? Something happened to him when he was gone, someone did something to him." I exclaimed rising from the bed and crossing over to the wardrobe on the other side of the room. There were clean soft clothes in the drawer, and I grabbed a pair of pants and a shirt.

"Yes something happened to him. I just hope that he will tell us what happened and why." Thor huffed out.

"Thor close your eyes." I announced.

"Why?" He said sitting up.

"Because I want to get out of this armor." I raised an eyebrow.

He blushed and shut his eyes, throwing himself back on the bed dramatically. Obsidian melted into a bracelet on my wrist and twisted around it comfortingly.

I quickly stripped off my armor and changed into the soft pants and t shirt. When I turned to look at Thor he was sitting up on the bed, his eyes open, staring at me.

"Did you look freak?" I asked him narrowing my eyes.

"No." He responded immediately, but he blushed.

"Don't make me hurt you Goldilocks."

He laughed and stood up. "Now can I change without you looking?"

"I don't know, can you?" I contradicted, sitting on the bed facing him.

He smirked at me and released the clasp on his breast plate, pulling it off and making himself shirtless in front of me.

I felt a blush creep up into my cheeks, but I couldn't look away. My voice caught in my throat, and for the first time in my life I thought of Thor as something other than a friend.

"Are you okay?" Thor said suddenly concerned, thinking that I was having a reaction to being tired. He took a step forward trying to comfort me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just have to go to the bathroom." I said suddenly standing up and moving to the small bathroom quickly. I splashed water on my face.

 _Get it together Cade. Thor is your best friend always has been, don't ruin that. You know that your track record with guys is not the best. You don't want to lose Thor too._

When I walked out of the bathroom Thor was sitting on the end of the bed, wearing a shirt and pants.

"So I guess you aren't going back to that room across the hall?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No. I think we should stick together."

"Okay." I tried to be calm as I got into the bed.

 _Thor and I had shared a bed before, it had never been weird, but something felt different. When Loki "died" I had stayed in Thor's room every night, he never left my side. He was always there to help me with my nightmares, but in the last year he had been more caring than he ever had. I thought he wanted to be with Jane, but maybe I was wrong._

He held open the covers for me as I got into the bed. He slid in next to me.

 _The air around me was suddenly enveloped in Thor's musk. I had never realized how much that smell comforted me until now._

He fell asleep almost instantly and his consistent breaths lulled me into a deep sleep.


	11. Chapter 11: Dreams Gone By

The sky was dark and stormy, rain was pelting down to earth so hard it hurt. Loki sat on a giant throne, but something was different about this throne. I inched forward getting closer to him, and I realized what the throne was made of.

The throne was made of hundreds of bodies all of people I knew and loved, even my grandmother and mother laid under his feet.

A wail ripped from my throat making Loki rise from the throne and pull me into his arms.

"I told you Cade, you will always be mine. You always have been always will be." He purred into my hair.

I looked down and the throne had turned into a mountain of bodies, rising from the ground beneath our feet. Thor's cold body lay right under our feet.

"Always will be mine." Loki's voice echoed through the space loudly, and as I opened my mouth to scream I was swept away.

I was swept away into a giant field, with a dark forest on the edge, rising menacingly from the earth. My grandmother was standing in the field and I ran to her, but the more I ran forward the further away she was. A dark shape rose from the ground behind her, a figure that I couldn't see. A sword slashed through my grandmother's body, and her ungodly scream ripped me from my sleep.

I woke up screaming.

"Cade, it's okay." I heard a voice say. Large arms wrapped around my body, pulling me against a warm chest.

I opened my eyes and realized that Thor was holding me against him. Hot tears ran down my face as the images played over and over in my head. I sobbed into his chest, and tried to gain control of myself.

"Shhhh. It's okay, it was just a dream Cade." Thor whispered into my hair.

I choked on another sob, but started to slow down my breathing.

"Was it the same dream? The one in the field?" He murmured.

I nodded and held onto him tighter.

"It seems so real, like I've been there before." I choked out. "But I can never see the person that kills my grandmother. It's like a shadow of a memory, but I can never grasp it." I felt Echo, nuzzle his head into my back, able to sense my distress.

"It's just a dream Cade. It will all be okay." Thor soothed stroking my hair.

 **"Cade are you okay?"** I heard Loki's voice in my head.

A shiver of remembrance ran through me, listening to the voice in my dreams.

I could sense his concern, but even now I wondered if it was real.

 **"I'm fine Loki."** I said blandly.

I concentrated on stopping the sobs that were coming out of my mouth, within a few moments I had calmed down enough to slowly pull myself from Thor's arms.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Thor said, concern thick in his voice. I turned back to look at him. He almost looked disappointed, but I couldn't think about that now.

I nodded and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me.

 **"We still need to talk."** Loki said.

 **"Yes I know."** I replied, running my fingers through my hair.

 **"I expect to see you sometime today."**

I shook my head and stripped off my clothes. The warm water made me feel alot better, but I still had dark circles under my eyes from last night when I looked in the mirror after my shower.

I conjured up my armor on my body, and stepped out of the bathroom.

Thor was sitting on the bed dressed in his armor. He gave me a smile when he saw me and stood up. Echo jumped off the bed happily.

"Echo how about you rest for a little." I said giving his head a rub behind the ears.

I drew him back onto my skin, letting his shape form a shadow of a wolf that wrapped around my left arm.

"I think they are all waiting for us." Thor murmured.

I sighed. "Of course they are."

We walked out of the bedroom and back into the main room at the end of the hall, Agent Coulson was waiting for us. He smiled as he saw Thor and led him over to a computer screen, that displayed a picture of Jane.

"As soon as Loki took the doctor we moved Jane to a remote location." He said calmly.

"Thank you." Thor replied, but he shifted from foot to foot uncomfortable. "I don't think Loki taking Erik is a mistake. He has a bigger plan here, and I want to know what it is."

"We will find out Thor." I said confidently, as I rested my hand on his arm trying to comfort him.

"Asgardians believe that they are more advanced that humanity, but then we come down here battling like Bilgesnipe." Thor said angrily.

I laughed at his comparison, because honestly he was right.

"Like what?" Coulson asked a smile on his face.

"Bilgesnipe? Huge scaly, big antlers?" I said confused.

"Nope, we don't have that." Coulson replied.

"Well they are repulsive creatures, and they trample everything in their path." I clarified.

Thor looked out the large windows at the front of the ship. "The last time I came here Loki's wrath followed me. I used to ask for war, but now..." He trailed off.

"War hasn't started." A deep voice said. I turned around and spotted Fury, who had apparently just materialized out of nowhere. "Do you think you can get Loki to tell us where the tesseract is?"

Thor sighed. "I do not know. Loki is so focused on his hatred of me that he won't tell me anything." Thor looked over at me. "Do you think he would tell you?"

I shrugged. "It's possible, but I don't know how much pull I have with Loki now. It's been a year Thor, he might not feel the same way he used to."

"I've seen the way he looks at you Cade. There is still something there if you pry at it." Thor replied.

"Wait. You and Loki..." Coulson began to say.

Fury's gaze shot to me, and in that moment I knew we had said too much.

 _Fury won't let me go now either, I can see it on his face. He will keep me here to use me to get to Loki._

"We were something at one point, but that was a while ago." I said vaguely, trying to get Fury's gaze off of me.

"Then it's possible he will tell you." Fury replied raising an eyebrow.

"Possible." I murmured.

"Let's see what Agent Romanoff can make him say." Fury said turning to a monitor where a thin brunette stood.

I saw the reflection of the screen and saw that Loki was talking to Natasha.

A microphone on Fury's wrist repeated Natasha's voice.

"He means to use the Hulk to break free, meet me at the lab." I saw her turn and leave the room quickly.

"This way." Coulson said motioning for Thor and I to follow him, down the same hallway we had come from.

We finally arrived at a small room that was set up with several screens and types of equipment I had never seen. Tony and Bruce stood in the far corner of the room and on the desk, sat a golden scepter. I took a step forward, enthralled in the glow that emanated from the blue tip.

It called me forward. _I just have to hold it._

Thor's hand on my arm grounded me back to reality.

"Cade what are you doing?" Thor asked me raising an eyebrow.

"I honestly don't know. There was a voice calling me towards it Thor. I just lost my head for a second." I replied.

He shook his head smiling at me.

Fury stalked into the room. "What are you doing Mr. Stark?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Tony replied smugly from behind the desk.

"You are supposed to be focused on finding the tesseract." Fury challenged.

"We are. We have a tracker looking for it right now, when it picks up the signal it will notify us immediately." Bruce said calmly.

"I'm more concerned about what phase 2 is." Tony teased.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD using the tesseract to make weapons." Steve interrupted coming into the room and slapping several guns on the table. "Sorry the computer was moving a little slow." Steve said looking over at Tony.

"Steve those are just from hydra, we haven't been-" Fury began to say.

"I'm sorry what were you saying?" Tony interrupted swinging his monitor around to show us a series of serious looking weapons.

Steve clenched his teeth. "I was wrong, the world hasn't changed."

 **"Wait, humanity can't have the tesseract, that power is too much for this planet."** I said to Thor.

Thor sighed. **"Humanity does not understand what they have. When this is over we will take it with us."**

"Did you know about this?" Bruce said to Natasha who had just walked into the room.

"Are you sure you don't want to remove yourself from this situation doctor?" Natasha replied, narrowing her eyes.

"I was in Calcutta , I was pretty far removed. You brought me into this." Bruce replied, moving around the table.

"Loki is manipulating you." Natasha said calmly.

"I'm not going to leave until I find out why SHIELD is making weapons of mass destruction!" Bruce shouted.

Fury sighed dramatically. "Because of them." He pointed at Thor and me.

"What?" I sputtered.

"We have no quarrel with you." Thor replied, confused.

"Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet and it leveled a small town. We learned that we are not alone in the universe and that humanity is hopelessly outgunned." Fury continued.

"Our people want nothing but peace." Thor reasoned.

Obsidian began to wind itself around my wrist, sensing a fight. I could feel Echo shifting against my arm, itching to jump off my skin.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury urged. "The world is filling up with people who can't be matched people who can't be controlled." As he said this his eye shot to me.

 _I'm here one day and I'm already being looked at like I'm the next science project._

Something inside of me began to burn white hot beneath the surface.

Thor positioned himself between me and Fury, rage pouring off him. "Cade is here to help, not to become a prisoner. I have allowed you to lock away my brother, but if you touch her I will not be as forgiving."

Fury opened his mouth to speak, but I shut him up.

"Your experiments on the tesseract drew Loki and his friends here. It broadcasted to the rest of the universe that Earth is ready for a higher form of war." I snarled. "It is not out fault."

"A higher form?" Steve repeated.

"Yes. If you think that my sword is something incredible," I chuckled darkly. "You ain't seen nothing yet."

"You forced our hand, we had to come up with something." Fury roared.

"You messed with a power you do not understand, and now it is too late. Midgard will reap what it has sown." I replied coldly.

"I thought that humans were more evolved than this." Thor murmured.

"Excuse me did we come to your planet and blow things up?" Fury shouted, his hand twitching towards his belt.

Thor was taken aback. "Do you treat all of your champions with this much mistrust?"

"Captain America is even on SHIELD'S watch list." Natasha added, motioning to Steve.

I was suddenly aware of the energy in the room. I glanced towards the table where the scepter sat, it was glowing brighter than it had been.

 _Loki isn't just manipulating Bruce, he's manipulating all of us._

I closed my eyes and attempted to get a hold of myself, purging my mind from what the scepter had done.

"You all want control, but you welcome chaos." Thor said angrily.

Tony and Steve began to get closer to each other, both trying to spit on the other.

 _This isn't good._

Thor moved forward towards Fury, but I caught his hand in mine, turning him to face me.

 **"Something's wrong."** I said to him.

 **"They want a fight and I shall give them one."** Thor roared in my head.

I placed my hands on the sides of his head.

 **"Loki is manipulating all of us and we need to calm down. Something big is about to happen."** I replied soothingly. I calmed his mind trying to let him see what Loki was doing. Thor opened his eyes slowly, the piercing blue almost taking my breath away.

 **"It's going to be okay. I can stop this."** I said to him, calming him down.

"Dr. Banner put the scepter down." I heard Steve say.

I looked around Thor and saw Bruce holding the scepter.

"Bruce you need to calm down. We all need to calm down, Loki wants us all at each other's throats." I said taking a step towards him.

I sent soothing thoughts towards his mind, trying to calm him, but I couldn't.

A beeping noise went off and everyone looked towards the tracker.

"Found it." Tony said typing something against the screen. "I can get there the fastest, I'll go."

"The tesseract belongs in Asgard, no human is a match for it." Thor said moving towards Tony.

An explosion shook the ship and I jolted towards the wall. Thor, jumped towards me and caught me before I hit, steadying me against him.

"Are you alright?" He whispered.

I nodded. "I'm pretty sure this is Loki's prison break."

I looked back to where Bruce and Natasha had been standing, but a huge hole in the floor took up most of the room.

"Hill!" Fury yelled into his headset. He nodded at the information coming in. "We've lost an engine. Stark I need you out there fixing it now."

Tony and Steve shot from the room. A piercing alarm wailed throughout the ship, lighting the hallways red.

"Coulson lock down the detention room then go to the armory." Fury said into his headset running from the room.

Thor looked down into the hole that Natasha and Bruce had fallen into.

A roar ripped through the hole in the floor and echoed all over the ship.

Thor and I jumped at the same time


	12. Chapter 12: Got to Break Out

We followed the trail of mass destruction and as we reached the end, a large green figure rose in front of us.

"Bruce?" I said calmly. Natasha was laying on the ground in front of him.

Thor slammed into him, propelling him sideways through the wall.

"Well that's just great." I murmured as I helped Natasha to her feet. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, but still looked a little shaky.

"Hey it's going to be okay." I soothed, letting calming thoughts drift into her mind.

"Thank you." She murmured.

She looked a lot better already.

"I'm going to go make sure that Thor doesn't destroy anything expensive." I said as I flew through the hole in the wall to find him.

He was going toe to toe with the giant green creature that was Bruce.

 _Okay, this is a little bit abnormal._

Bruce threw Thor into an expensive looking plane and turned to attack me.

I held up my hands. "Easy big guy, I don't want to fight you."

Bruce swung his arm at me and I ducked.

"But you obviously want to hurt me." I snarked towards him.

He took another swing and this time I caught his knuckle in my hand, successfully holding him back.

The green beast looked surprised that I was holding back his arm, honestly I was a little surprised too, but I was loosing my grip quickly.

"Hey Goldilocks you wanna help me out!" I grunted beneath the strength of the punch.

Thor jumped on him wrapping his arms around Banner's neck.

"Okay good keep him just like that, and I will just leave." I turned around.

"Cade!" Thor yelled.

"Fine." I reached out with my mind trying to calm down Bruce, but he threw Thor into me. I fell back, with all of Thor's weight on me. Thor's head slammed into the floor hard.

"Thor you are crushing my rib cage." I sputtered.

I saw Banner rise over us, and begin to slam his hands down. I threw up a telekinetic shield that protected us, but I knew I couldn't hold it for long.

 _If I let Echo go, he will rip him in half. If I let the shield go he will rip us in half._

Thor still wasn't getting up.

"Thor, why aren't you getting up?" I grunted, lifting his head.

Still no answer.

"Thor?" I looked at his face, his eyes were closed. "Thor!" I shouted.

I threw back the shield throwing Bruce away from us.

I pushed Thor off of me gently.

"Okay Bruce, you want to fight, let's fight." I growled, Obsidian shifted into an axe in my hand.

 _No, if I kill Bruce I will never forgive myself. I let Obsidian go, letting the blade slice deep into the hull of the ship._

"I am not your enemy Bruce." I called as he charged me full speed.

 _This was such a bad idea._

I could feel my eyes begin to glow, letting the power of my ancestors flood through me. I released a bolt of energy that slammed into Bruce sending him flying back from me. In the corner of my eye I saw a jet rising up out the window.

 _No, no, no! You idiot what are you doing!_

As Bruce roared loudly and charged forward, the jet let a spray of bullets through the glass, successfully distracting Bruce. He let loose a roar and jumped through the glass onto the plane.

 _Well that guy is definitely dead._

I ran over to where Thor was lying. "Thor wake up." I said shaking him.

He still didn't open his eyes.

"Come on Thor, you have taken bigger hits than this!" I complained. "Thor please." I said concentrating on waking up his mind. I shook him again.

He opened his eyes slowly. "Cade, what happened?"

"You had your ass handed to you by a Midgardian." I teased him.

"He was not just a normal Midgardian." Thor groaned standing up.

"Was the ground also wet?" I said laughing, standing to my feet.

Thor frowned. "Don't tell anyone about this."

"Oh I'm going to broadcast all over Asgard." I replied smiling.

" Now come on, we have to go check on Loki." I said to Thor pulling him in the direction of the detention area. I used my mind to navigate through the ship, but when we got to the detention area, Loki was about to step out of his glass prison.

"No!" Thor shouted and jumped forward through Loki. The door slammed shut behind him, trapping Thor in the prison.

Loki appeared by the controls for the prison.

"Are you never not going to fall for that?" He teased Thor.

"Brother do not do this." Thor said calmly.

"The humans think us immortal, why don't we test that theory." Loki drawled on.

"Step away please." Coulson appeared behind me, holding an enormous weapon.

As I turned to look at him, the end of the scepter went through his chest.

"No, Coulson." I yelled reaching forward to catch him, but Loki stepped between us, wrapping one of his arms around me. He pulled my face to his and kissed me, trying to deepen the kiss, but I pushed him away disgusted.

"What are you doing?" I shouted at him.

Loki laughed, a sick smile on his face. "Isn't it obvious." He moved forward to be closer to me. "Taking what's rightfully mine." He leaned down to kiss me again, but I stepped under his arm, getting closer to Coulson.

"What does that mean?" I replied. Obsidian shifted into the sheath at my waist.

Loki laughed again, but didn't come closer to me. "You are mine Cade you always have been. It took me a year of being without you to realize that, but now that I have you back. I'm never going to let you go again."

"Loki why are you doing this?"

"I missed you, more than you will ever know." He took a step forward towards me.

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

For a second I wanted to believe him, I wanted to run into his arms and have him hold me, but apart of me knew better. I stood my ground.

"Why are you doing this? This man did nothing to you!" I shouted motioning to Coulson.

"They are just insects Cade, but you and I we are so much more." Loki replied, his eyes glowing blue in the soft light.

 _Wait, Loki doesn't have blue eyes._

"You see the way the humans look at you, as something to be prodded and poked, but you are exquisite." He moved forward and placed on of his hands on my cheek.

I did not pull away from him. Something was binding me to that spot, I had no idea what.

"Cade you are more than this. Be my queen and I will make sure that no one looks at you that way ever again." He purred.

My vision of the throne made of bodies ran through my head. I knew that if I went with him that would come true.

"You are so powerful Cade. It has only been a year and look at how far you have come. Your powers have manifested in a way that was more incredible than I imagined." He continued stroking my cheek.

And I knew. He planned this. He knew that I would be just as powerful as my grandmother and he pretended to love me so he could have that power at his disposal.

I slapped his hand away. "You never loved me, you loved what I would become." I sputtered.

"No Cade that isn't true." Loki said earnestly. "I loved you because you made me feel something that I thought was impossible. Come with me and we can be together without anyone standing in our way."

"Loki if you come with Thor and me we can help you." I took his hand in mine. "Please come with us back to Asgard, we can be together there. Give this up Loki, and come home." I pleaded with him.

Loki withdrew his hand. "You still choose Thor over me! I thought you had changed, but I was wrong. I thought things would be different."

"I have never chosen Thor over you Loki and you know that. You know that I love you. Please come back with us." I said earnestly.

Loki stepped towards the controls. "No! I'd rather die than go back to that place and be a slave."

He slammed his hand down on the controls and sent Thor hurtling towards Earth.

"NO!" I screamed trying to stop the prison, but I couldn't.

"The truth is Cadence you are weak. You have more power than you realize and you let others hold you back. If you come with me I will not keep you in a cage, I will make sure that you are free. Isn't that what you want?" Loki begged me.

 _Maybe I was wrong, maybe deep down he does love me._

I stood my ground. "No. What you are promising isn't freedom. Loki it isn't too late, you can still make the right decision."

"This is the right decision!" He seethed. "But you are just too weak Cadence Caindaughter! You were too weak to save your mother and sisters from their fiery death, and you were too weak to save your own grandmother!"

"Shut up!" I roared. My eyes were glowing.

"You aren't powerful enough to stop me, and I thought you would make the right decision, but instead you chose the big blond buffoon over someone that sees you as something other than something nice to look at." He spat.

As he said this a bolt of light shot out from behind me and slammed into his chest throwing him backward through the wall.

"So that's what it does." I heard Coulson whisper.

I dropped to my knees and tried to put pressure on his chest.

"I am so sorry Coulson. I didn't know that-" I began apologizing.

"Don't listen to him Cade." Coulson coughed out. "Thor sees you as something more, you must realize that the way he looks at you." Coulson smiled.

I laughed. "Thor is my best friend, always has been."

"I can see why Loki was jealous." Coulson sputtered.

"I'm sorry for what has happened." I said pressing harder against his chest. "I cannot help you."

Coulson's hand grasped mine tightly.

"Don't worry about me. Go help Thor." He murmured.

Fury ran into the room.

"What happened?" He shouted at me, dropping to his knees next to Coulson.

"Loki." I whispered.

Coulson began to shut his eyes.

"Hey eyes on me!" Fury yelled turning Coulson's head to look at him. Coulson didn't let go of my hand.

"It's okay sir, this was never going to work unless if they had..." As he trailed off his eyes lost the light in them, and his grip on my hand loosened.

He was gone.

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"Can you stop Loki?" Fury said in a whisper.

"I don't know."

"Then find out." Fury roared rising to his feet. "You come in here with all that swagger, but what do you have to back it up? An old sword and a dog?" Fury laughed. "Some Asgardian."

I ignored his jest. "I will stop Loki, but I cannot promise that we will not lose more people."

I pressed the button on the controls to open the doors and leaped over the railing out into the open sky.


	13. Chapter 13: The Sky is Falling

As I fell through the sky I thought about just letting go. To let myself keep falling, falling into nothingness.

My life has been full of sadness, so much loss, it seemed like everyone I got close to died. Loki doesn't count, but at the same time he proves everything about my life. Every major relationship in my life had been tragically sad, maybe that's my fault or maybe my taste in men is just really bad. Or maybe my life was destined to be a life filled with loneliness, maybe I was cursed to lose everyone I loved.

And if Coulson was right, then Thor was destined to die as well, and I won't let that happen. If I have to live on Earth the rest of my life to keep Thor safe I would, to make sure he lived.

I opened my eyes and saw the ground rise up to catch me, but I didn't let it. I slowed down my fall and let my boots kiss the earth lightly.

 _Focus on Thor. My thoughts drifted to those stormy gray eyes of his._ I shook my head. _Thor and I had been friends for over 300 years, and I didn't want to lose the one thing in my life that actually made sense._

Even if he did have feelings for me, what did that matter.

After this whole mess with Loki is over, Thor will fly back to Jane and I will be alone again. I do better on my own anyway, maybe I could stay on Midgard with SHIELD.

I laughed, and rolled my eyes.

 _Imagine that, staying on Midgard. There was a time that I was afraid of that very thing, but maybe this world was changing, maybe it had matured in a way that I didn't think was possible._

I closed my eyes and soaked in the sun. Something about the sun had always made me feel better, it reminded me of a simpler time, a time that I would lay in the forest outside of my mother's house and imagine my future. I never thought that it would end up like this.

I located Thor and flew full speed towards him. He was standing in a dirt field filled with large boulders with Mjolnir sitting on the ground in front of him.

Thor was covered in dirt and small scratches.

"Cade!" Thor yelled across the field and then he was in front of me pulling me into his welcoming arms.

"Hi." I breathed. Being in his arms felt so comforting so natural. I was used to Thor's bear hugs, but lately being in Thor's arms made me feel like the sun was warming up every single part of my body.

"Are you alright?" He asked me as he pulled back and checked me for wounds.

I nodded. "I should ask you the same thing." I replied looking over at Thor's scratched up arm.

"I'm fine." He clipped as his eyes began to blaze with anger. "The nerve of him, doing something so vile and then pulling you into his arms and kissing you!" Thor yelled. Lightning crackled across the sky.

"Thor it's okay I dealt with him." I said trying to calm him down.

"No it's not okay! Kissing you like that and then saying that you were his! As if he has some sort of claim on you." Thor roared. Thunder rumbled and a bolt of lightning snapped into the ground next to us.

"Loki has always been jealous Thor you know that." I breathed.

Thor chuckled darkly. "That was more than jealousy Cade and you know it."

A vision of my dream flashed into my head, the vision of Thor's cold body beneath my feet. A chill ran down my spine. I could feel Echo bristling against my skin.

"Shhh," I whispered, placing a hand to my wrist and stroking Echo. "I should have stopped him." I whispered barely audible.

"What?" Thor said raising his head to look at me.

"I should have stopped him!" I screamed, slamming my fist into the boulder to my right, splitting it in two.

"What could you have done Cade? I'm just as guilty as you, I could have stopped him too." Thor murmured.

I shook my head and stood up to my full height. "I could have said yes to him. I could have gone with him, and maybe when it was just us together I could have made him see sense." I yelled slamming my fist back into the rock breaking it even more.

Thor was on me in a flash.

"Cade, don't you ever sacrifice yourself like that. Loki would just use you against us. What if he got into your mind? He could have taken control of your mind, and then what?" Thor said. He was so close to me, pulling my face from the ground to look at him. "I would never fight you Cade, you know that, and that's what he wants. To divide us because his jealousy has invaded his mind."

I pulled myself from Thor's grasp. "It's more than his jealousy. Did you see his eyes? The scepter is controling him too. I might be able to help him."

Thor shook his head as a clap of thunder shook the ground beneath our feet. "His eyes were just as green as always Cade. Your mind is playing tricks on you."

 _Wait, was I the only one who could see it?_

"Somebody has to stop him Thor." I said solemly.

Thor sighed and placed his hands on my shoulders. "Yes, but not everything is on your shoulders."

Warmth radiated from the palms of his hands down through my body, and I wanted to sink into his touch, but I held myself back.

"Cade it's not your fault, I could have stopped him too, but I didn't know how far Loki would go." Thor said softly.

"No. It's my fault, and now a good man is dead." I said solemnly, remembering what Coulson had said to me.

"Loki is doing this because he wants to be a king, and I am the person standing in his way. Coulson's death is on my head, not yours." Thor turned around to look back at Mjolnir.

I was in front of Thor so fast he didn't have time to blink.

"Don't you ever blame yourself for Loki's jealousy. He is acting like a child who wants a shiny new toy." I let out a huffy breath.

Thor was looking at me in a way that made me lose feeling in my legs.

He took a step forward, getting closer to me. "Cade, I..."

 _I wanted to kiss him so bad, but if I did it would ruin everything. Our friendship would become something else, something that I wasn't sure of._

Loki's words rang through my head like a symphony. "You were always mine, always have been, always will be." Another shudder ran down my spine.

"I can track Loki from here." I said, trying to change the subject, taking a step away from him.

Thor sighed, but called Mjolnir back into his hand. "Alright, but maybe we should check on everyone up there." Thor gestured upward to the helicarrier.

"Race you?" I said trying to make him smile.

He finally smiled back at me, rising off the ground. "You're on!"

And then we shot upward like stars, ready to face the destruction of the world.

* * *

We arrived on the deck of the broken ship. Everything was smoking, or still on fire, but at least it had remained air-borne. Thor and I crossed through the doorway descending into the ship.

I could see Natasha ahead of me dragging a man with short brown hair behind her. His head was rolling over to one side, and for a moment I thought he was dead.

"Do you need some help?" I asked her as I ran forward.

She nodded, and I knelt down to hoist the man between us.

"Here I'll get him." I heard Thor say. He pulled the man up on one shoulder, holding onto him. "Where do you want him?"

"In here." Natasha opened the door in the wall next to us, and we all marched into a small room. Thor laid the man down on the bed as Natasha retrieved a wet washcloth from the small bathroom. She tied straps onto his arms on either side of the bed, and began to drag a washcloth over his forehead gently.

"What happened to him?" I asked quietly.

"Loki." She said coldly.

I bit my lip. "I think I might be able to help, if you'll let me."

She looked at me, distrust in her gaze, but finally moved aside to let me closer to the man.

"What's his name?" I asked her.

"Clint." She brushed a strand of hair out of her face.

I placed my hand on the front of his forehead, and was immediately sucked into his mind.

Blue smoke rose all around me, and screams rang through his head. Visions of death and invasion flashed through his mind, an effect of the scepter's power no doubt.

 **"Clint"** I said aloud my voice echoing through his mind. There was no answer, and the screams grew more frantic. **"Clint!"** I shouted louder than before, trying to draw his consciousness out of his head.

Clint rose out of the darkness armed with a bow, an arrow already notched against it. **"Who are you?"**

I raised my hands in a motion of surrender. **"My name is Cadence, I'm a friend of Natasha's. I'm here to help you."**

 **"No. I don't believe you"** He shouted pulling the bow tighter. **"You are just another trick, an illusion, sent to give me hell."**

 **"I'm not here to hurt you. Loki has done something to your mind, please let me help."** I replied calmly, trying to soothe him.

The grip on the bow loosened a fraction. I saw him consider my words.

 **"We don't have much time. Everyone is preparing for the fight that is coming. We need you on our side."** I sent soothing thoughts through his mind, and raised my hand out in front of me, asking him to grab it.

For a moment I thought he was going to skewer me, but he slowly lowered the bow and placed the arrow back into the quiver on his back.

 **"Okay."** He said softly stepping forward and placing his hand in mine.

I slowly cleaned out the muck in his mind that the scepter had left, letting his consciousness rise to the surface as I pulled myself from his mind.

I took a step back from the bed, weakly.

 _I really need to practice that._

Thor turned me around so he could look into my eyes.

 **"Are you okay?"** His concern for me, flooded through my mind.

I nodded and let out the breath I was holding.

 **"We should give them a moment."** I replied and slowly pulled Thor into the hallway, as Natasha and Clint began to talk.

"Wait Cade!" Natasha said loudly as we stepped out.

I turned to look at her.

"Thank you." Her voice was soft and full of gratitude.

I nodded and walked with Thor towards the bridge.

Fury was waiting for us, with Tony and Steve. Tony and Steve were seated at the large table with what looked like some kind of cards soaked in blood in the middle of it.

 _Ew._

"Oh so now you decide to show up. The great Asgardians, here to save the day!" Fury jeered.

I clenched my teeth together to avoid saying anything, Thor wasn't so lucky.

"We tried to warn you of what your experiments would bring, but you were too arrogant to listen to us." Thor shouted, anger burning in his eyes.

Fury opened his mouth to speak, but I shut him up.

"Look, I know we don't get along very well, but there are bigger things at work here, and standing around slinging insults at one another isn't going to help." I said as calmly as I could.

Fury sighed, but nodded in agreement.

"Good, glad we are on the same page." I said, letting a sarcastic smile cross over my face. "Now I can find Loki, but if we are going to do this right, Thor and I are going to need some help."

"Don't worry about that." Tony said standing up. "How about you Steve?" He said turning towards him.

Steve sighed, and stood up. "I'm in."

"Great. Now, let's go find this son of a bitch." Tony said smiling.

"He's in the tall building in the middle of the city, the one with Stark on the side." I said tracking Loki's position in my mind.

"Well not the first time somebody has thrown a party at my building without inviting me." Tony said into my earpiece.

Thor, Tony, and I were flying ahead of the jet that carried Natasha, Clint, and Steve. I still couldn't get used to the piece of metal in my ear, but tried to get around it. Obsidian was strapped to my waist, in the form of a heavy metal sword. Echo was moving impatiently on my skin, ready for a fight.

"I'll go in alone, everyone else circle back around." Tony said calmly breaking off to go towards the tower. His suit was still in bad shape from the fight on the ship, it would occasionally lose altitude, but then have a burst of speed, as he flew from us.

"Stark wait!" Steve's voice shouted in my ear.

"And he's gone." Natasha said sounding bored.

I watched Tony approach the tower quickly, and landed on a nearby building next to Thor.

"Do you think this is going to work?" I said to him quietly.

"It's possible, but I don't think that Stark will have the same effect on him that you and I have." Thor answered, crossing his hands in front of his chest.

"Maybe we should just go in to help him." I took a step towards the edge of the building.

"No. Let's see what happens." Thor murmured.

Tony fired an energy pulse at the device on top of the building. An explosion shook the building that Thor and I were standing on, but the machine was still intact.

 _Well, it's reached the point were we can't blow it up. Great._

I looked below the roof and saw Loki lounging lazily, looking up at where Tony was flying.

"Stark are you sure you don't want back up?" I said.

"No. I got this, babe." I heard him say confidently. He landed on the balcony and began to walk into his building, his armor was being taken off by some machine that seemed to rise from the ground.

"Stark please refrain from calling Cade a baby. She is actually much older than you." Thor replied confused.

"I don't think that's what he meant Thor." I said smiling and looking back at him.

He shrugged and looked back over towards the building where Tony and Loki were inside talking.

All of a sudden Loki threw Tony out the window of the building. I moved forward to jump off the ledge so I could catch him, but Thor caught my arm.

"Wait." He whispered.

Tony's armor shot around him and caught him before he fell to his death. I relaxed, and took in a deep breath.

 **"It's going to be okay Cade."** Thor said trying to comfort me.

I nodded and watched Tony fly upward back to the balcony.

 **"I just don't want anyone else to die, because Loki is being an idiot."** I replied.

 _That's when the sky exploded._


	14. Chapter 14: We Have A Hulk

A blue light shot upward, splitting open the sky.

Thor began to swing his hammer round and around, ready to take off. I drew Obsidian.

The Chitauri began to pour through the portal, quickly swarming around like bees.

I took a deep breath, preparing my mind for the battle that was about to take place.

"Hey." I heard Thor say softly.

I looked over to him.

"Going in alive." He said raising an eyebrow.

"Coming out alive ." I replied, giving him a small smile, and slapping his hand to mine.

"Now would be a great time for everyone to join in" Tony said over the earpiece.

We launched ourselves off the building towards Loki, who was now wearing his full battle armor and watching the destruction of the city. As we landed on the balcony, the stone cracked beneath our feet.

"Loki!" Thor said angrily. "Turn off the tesseract or I'll destroy it."

Loki laughed, but didn't look at Thor. His eyes were only on me. A smirk made it's way across his face. "You can't, there is no stopping it, there is only the war!" Loki shouted back and shot a bolt of energy out of his scepter.

I put a telekinetic shield between us, absorbing the impact of the blast.

"Loki, please it isn't too late for you to do the right thing." I said more calmly than I felt.

The Chitauri continued to spew from the portal, riding their chariots down past us into the large city below.

"Poor innocent Cade. You still think you have a hold on me." He chuckled, his eyes hardened. "But I will never listen to another word that comes out of your whore mouth."

 _That was rude._

Thor yelled and launched himself at Loki, just as Loki moved jumped towards us off the platform. They met mid air, sparks flying from their weapons.

Loki's scepter charged up again aiming at me, but Thor knocked it away with his hammer, causing the blast to hit the lettering on the side of the building.

"You are just always in the way brother!" Loki roared attempting to knock Thor aside to get to me.

"I will not allow you to hurt Cade." Thor grunted pushing Loki away from me.

Loki paced in front of us, a murderous look in his eyes. "How long did it take you to coax her into your bed when I was gone? I probably wasn't even gone an hour before you two started f-"

Thor tackled Loki, cutting off what he was about to say, but I think I had a good idea as to what it was.

Loki kicked Thor off of him and rolled away towards his scepter.

"Loki believe me when I say this, there is nothing going on between Thor and I, there never has been," I said calmly. Obsidian was clutched in my right hand, a menacing sword, but I wasn't sure if I could use it on Loki.

"Liar!" Loki bellowed shooting another bolt of energy, this time I couldn't stop it as it raced towards me.

I raised Obsidian to absorb the blast, but even that knocked me back a few feet. Loki was in front of me in a flash, bringing the spear down at my head. I ducked around him and kicked him in the back, making him fall on his knees.

Every building around us was exploding in a volley of gunfire, and I could hear the screams of the citizens drifting up towards us.

"Look around you Loki!" Thor said grabbing him. "Do you think that this madness will end in your rule?"

Loki paused, and for a second I saw something flash in those eerie blue eyes of his.

 _Why are they blue? Wait, maybe the scepter didn't just mess with us, maybe it messed with him too._

"It's too late to stop it." Loki murmured eyes wide.

"We can stop this together." I said getting closer to him, that was my mistake.

Loki flashed forward a small dagger in his hand, and shoved it through the soft part of my armor into my side.

Pain exploded in my body as I fell backward away from him.

Thor yelled loudly and kicked Loki away from me. Worry flashed in Thor's eyes and he took a step forward to see if I was okay.

The jet carrying Steve, Natasha, and Clint rose next to us, targeting Loki with the large gun on the front of the ship.

Loki whipped around and shot a energy pulse at them. The engine on the side of the ship exploded and they started to plummet to the ground.

In anger Thor grabbed Loki and threw him to the ground, but Loki rolled off the platform and onto a passing ship.

My pain forgotten, I launched myself off the building and began free falling towards the ground quickly.

The jet was below me, and I could feel the strain of Natasha's mind as she attempted to keep the jet aloft.

I flew under the jet swiftly and caught it in my hands, slowing it down. My muscles were straining under the effort, but I knew that I wouldn't have been able to telekinetically stop this, it was too big, and spending that much energy this early in a fight was not a good idea. Thor appeared next to me, catching the jet in his hands, worry on his face. The landing gear came out around us as we neared the ground, and we was able to land the jet softly.

I let out the breath I had been holding and looked around at the destruction around me. It had only been a few minutes, but it already looked like a war zone. Broken bits of building littered the streets and people were running and screaming, running in every direction.

Everyone came out of the ship and looked around at the destruction.

Thor put his hand to my side, where the blade had pierced my skin. I winced as his hand touched me, and worry flashed in his eyes.

"Thor I'm okay, it's just a flesh wound. I promise it didn't pierce anything important okay?" I said.

He pursed his lips, but let out a breath. "Okay."

"Thor don't worry about me, if you worry about me, you are going to get hurt." I said frowning.

He laughed. "Cade there isn't a day that I don't worry about you." He paused. "But then again that's mostly because you tend to charge into battle more than I do, and that's saying something."

I laughed. "You know that's because I am more ferocious than you."

"As adorable as this is, can you save it until we are not all about to die." Natasha said as she loaded the gun in her hand.

"You worry too much." I replied looking over at her. "Plus this will be fun."

Thor chuckled and raised Mjolnir above him.

'Your and my definition of fun is very different." Natasha said smiling.

I shrugged.

"Thank you for landing the jet." Steve said to us

"You're welcome." As I said this a Chitauri squadron landed on the other side of the street. I picked up Obsidian from where it had fallen from my hand.

The Chitauri roared, challenging me.

 _Oh you want a fight, I'll show you a fight._

"Echo off." I growled.

Echo appeared in front of me, a shadow with claws and teeth.

He ripped into the Chitauri like they were made of paper, and we all charged in after him. The dark blood of the Chitauri stained the edge of my blade as I slashed my way through the fray.

A Chitauri rose in front of me, but I cut him in half with Obsidian and raised my sword to absorb the blast from a Chitauri with a blaster ducking behind a car.

"Ready Clint?" I yelled.

"For what?" He asked.

I telekinetically threw the car away, taking away the group of Chitauri's hiding place.

"Oh I get it!" Clint shouted as he let loose a volley of arrows, cutting down the aliens where they stood.

A roar cut off my reply, and I looked upward towards the portal.

 _Why did I have to look up?_

A giant flying beast soared out of the portal. It was bigger than anything I had ever seen in my life, and a sense of dread clawed at my spine.

"Does anyone know if Bruce is coming back?" I asked, pretending to be calm.

"He'll be here!" I heard Tony shout.

"Hopefully soon." I mumbled.

"Heard that." Tony gruffed.

As the beast flew over us, countless Chitauri shot out of the armor grabbing onto the buildings around us.

Obsidian lengthened into an axe in my hand.

Echo roared out a challenge to the Chitauri who clung to the building above.

Thor rose off the ground and flew upward taking down a few of the speeders that raced past.

"There are civilians trapped in those buildings." Steve murmured looking over the side of the bridge. He was hesitant to leave us, how cute.

"We got this." Natasha told him confidently.

"Do you think you can hold them off?" Steve asked Clint.

"Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure." Clint replied shooting a volley of arrows at the oncoming swarm of Chitauri.

Steve jumped off the bridge and raced towards the people who were in danger.

"You sure about that?" I asked Natasha.

"Nope." She replied opening fire.

I slashed at the oncoming squadron of Chitauri. Echo stayed in the forefront ripping and tearing at anything that got close enough to us, but we still weren't making a dent. Steve came back up to the fight, going hand to hand with every Chitauri that challenged him

"If we get out of this Cade, I'm going to show you what real fun is." Natasha yelled over the explosions around us.

"I'll look forward to it." I grunted, swinging my axe through a Chitauri's back severing his spinal cord.

Lightning reigned down from above taking out every remaining Chitauri on the bridge with us. Thor landed next to me, shaking the ground with the force of his landing. Pain flared through my side, but I ignored it.

 _There were more pressing things._

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked Thor, as he wiped off blood from the front of his shield.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable." Thor sighed.

"He's right. We have to deal with these guys." Tony's voice rang through the earpiece.

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked us.

I shrugged.

"As a team." Steve replied.

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor said stoically, his grip on Mjolnir tightening.

"Get in line." Clint said from behind us as he scavenged arrows from the fallen.

"Save it. Loki is going to keep these things focused on us and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark up top and he's gonna run us..." Steve trailed off.

I turned and looked behind us. Bruce was riding up on a loud mechanical bike.

"Bruce you came!" I said smiling. He gave me a small shy smile.

"So this all seems horrible." He said pursing his lips together.

An explosion shook the ground beneath our feet.

"I've seen worse." Natasha replied, raising an eyebrow.

Bruce sighed. "I'm sorry about that."

"No, we could use some worse." She said giving him a smile.

 _Were they flirting? That is so cute._

I sent a sly look at Thor, who rolled his eyes at me.

 **"Stop."** He said smiling.

 **"Come on, you know it's cute** _."_ I replied laughing.

"Stark we got him." Steve said calmly.

"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to him." Tony said mysteriously.

He rounded the corner, with the giant floating beast following him closely behind.

 _Well this should be fun._

"I don't see how that's a party." Natasha mumbled, watching Tony try to out race the giant creature behind him.

Bruce turned and walked calmly forward towards the monster.

"Dr. Banner I think now is a good time for you to get angry." Steve shouted.

"That's my secret Captain, I'm always angry." Bruce called over his shoulder.

Just before the creature slammed into him, Bruce shifted, becoming taller and wider and finally greener.

His fist slammed into the face of the creature, causing a chain reaction through the body. The creature's momentum propelled the tail end to rise off the ground so that it was above us, about to slam onto us.

"Hold on" Tony said shooting a weapon into the tail end as it fell towards us.

I threw up a telekinetic shield protecting us from the explosion that rained down guts and bits of blood from above.

Not Bruce roared out a challenge to the Chitauri that clung to the walls above us, and Echo snarled bearing his teeth.

I looked upward at the portal as countless others spilled forth, including two more of the flying monstrosities.

 _It was going to be a long day._


	15. Chapter 15: New York, New York

"Call it Cap." Tony said in that metallic voice of his, as we all watched more Chitauri soldiers spew from the portal above us.

"Alright listen up, before we can close the portal, we have to think containment." Steve looked over at Clint. "Barton I want you on the roofs eyes on everything. Calling out patterns and strays."

Clint gave him a stiff nod.

"Stark I want you to make a perimeter, anything gets more than 3 blocks out you turn it back or you turn it to ash." Steve continued.

"Wanna give me a lift?" Clint said looking over at Stark.

"Right, better clench up Legolas." Stark grabbed Clint under the shoulders and took off, throwing dust around in his wake.

"Thor you gotta go try and bottleneck that portal. You have to slow down anything that comes through there. You've got the lightning, light the bastards up." Steve said seriously.

Thor took off flying towards the tallest building in the city.

Steve turned to me. "You, Nat, and I are going to be here on the ground, making sure that the civilians aren't harmed, and keeping the Chitauri occupied." Steve paused.

Not Bruce was still waiting for his command, and I wondered if he could understand us.

"And Hulk." Steve said smiling. "Smash!"

A huge smile ripped across not Bruce's face, as he leaped off the ground.

 _Well at least he's happy._

Hulk ripped through the side of the building, tearing Chitauri off and throwing them everywhere. The rest jumped to the ground, ready to face me.

 _That was their mistake._

Echo lunged forward, ripping into the Chitauri that dared get close to me. I raised Obsidian high in my hand.

"For Midgard!" I shouted and charged into the fight.

The first Chitauri swung at my head with his black blade, but I ducked under him, slashing Obsidian through his leg, and finally caving in his skull with the bloody axe in my hand.

Natasha was laying down fire, trying to keep the Chitauri from getting too close to close to us, while Steve and I made our way through the Chitauri at the front.

"Mommy!" I heard a voice scream.

I looked through the Chitauri in front of me and saw a little brown haired girl, holding a pink teddy bear. A group of Chitauri soldiers were moving towards her making the little girl back away, as she cried.

I leaped over the hoard of Chitauri in my way and landed in the middle of the circle of Chitauri surrounding the little girl.

"Hi." I said smiling.

One of the Chitauri opened their mouth to roar.

"Shut your eyes." I told the girl. She closed her eyes tightly and I slashed my way through the Chitauri surrounding us.

"Echo!" I called out, not seeing him in the fight.

He materialized in front of us, taking a protective stance.

I crouched down next to the little girl.

"You can open your eyes now." I said quietly, strapping Obsidian to my side.

She opened her brown eyes, and looked at me, eyes wide, almost like a lost puppy.

"Are the monsters gone?" She whispered.

"For now, but I can't say that they won't come back." I murmured.

Tears, ran down the little girl's face.

"What's you name?" I asked her.

"Alice." She sobbed.

"I'm Cade." I said giving her a smile. I raised my thumb and wiped away one of her tears.

She was covered in Ash.

"Where are your parents Alice?"

An explosion shook the building behind us, and Alice screamed, running into my arms.

"Shhh. It's okay, everything is going to be okay." I soothed.

"I don't know where my mommy is." The little girl sobbed into my shoulder.

"We will find your mommy, it will be okay." I rubbed her back trying to comfort her.

She squeezed my side a little bit too hard, right where Loki had stabbed me and I clenched my teeth in pain.

 _Keep it together Cade._

A speeder touched down right in front of me. Alice didn't notice because she was too busy curling into my shoulder. I stood up to my full height, holding her in one arm.

"Shut your eyes, sweetie." I whispered to her.

I raised my hand in front of me and threw the car next to us telekinetically into the speeder. The speeder exploded sending bits of shrapnel right at us. I stopped them an inch away from us mid-air and let them drop harmlessly to the ground.

"Hold on." I said calmly, rising into the air, and flying back to where Natasha and Steve were fighting.

I ducked behind a car, with Alice in my arms. Echo made his way back to us and covered our backs. I opened the door of the car and placed her on the seat.

"Alice, everything is going to be okay. I'm going to leave Echo with you. He will protect you I promise." I said calmly.

"No don't leave." She sobbed harder.

Echo jumped into the car and laid his head in her lap.

"Puppy." She whispered and patted his head.

I smiled. _Only a child would see a huge ass wolf covered in blood and think puppy._

 _"_ He will protect you, just as he has protected me. I will come back for you." I promised.

She nodded and continued to pet Echo.

I closed the door and moved other cars around to make sure no one could get in without effort.

 _That poor child, seeing the terror of war so early in her life._

She reminded me of my little sisters, so young, still had so much life left to live. I tried not to think about their deaths, but they plagued me more than my grandmother did.

I wasn't paying attention when the speeder came up behind me, and someone grabbed me from behind lifting me into the air.

I struggled against the grip of the thing holding me.

I felt their breath against my ear.

"Let go of me you creep." I yelled.

"Well, is that any way to treat your fiance?" A voice purred into my ear.

"Loki let me go now." I said angrily.

"I had a long time to think it over, and I don't want to let you go Cade. You are too much like me, to have anyone else in your life." He was pressing himself into me.

"I'm nothing like you Loki." I growled out.

Loki sighed into my hair. "Yes you are. We wouldn't have been together as long as we were if you weren't like me."

"No." I said elbowing him in the stomach making him let go of me. I stumbled away onto the platform of the speeder.

My hair was wiping through my face, my feet unsteady beneath me, on the speeder that raced through the city.

"Cade just admit it. You can't live without me." He said smirking.

"I thought I couldn't, for a long time I thought that." I paused considering my next words. "But then I realized that I don't need a man to define who I am. I don't need a man to protect me, because I am a warrior, the next generation of Valkyrie. And I'm not going to let some scummy guy that I used to roll around with change that about me!" I yelled, swinging my fist and punching him in the face.

He soared off the speeder and onto Stark's tower below us.

I jumped over the divider in the speeder and ripped the Chitauri in front of me in two, and as the speeder fell towards the ground I considered my life.

A life that I thought was filled with so much pain and loss, but when I thought of Thor a warmth spread through me that I had never understood. I thought that my life was falling apart, but he kept it together. I used to think that I was in love with Loki, but maybe that was a lie, a lie that I told myself to get through.

The speeder plummeted through the air towards the roof of a building and I leaped off out into open air.

Thunderclouds rumbled overhead as Thor shot lightning into the portal above stopping the flow for a few moments, but not for long.

I watched Natasha flash by on a speeder trying to steer it.

"Nat you okay?" I asked into my headset, beginning to fly towards her.

"Yeah. I got this." I heard her grunt.

I circled back to where Steve was fighting on the ground. The Chitauri were almost all the way around him.

My feet slammed into the concrete sending up a shock wave that made the Chitauri step back.

"Steve duck!" I commanded as I concentrated on a car behind the Chitauri making it roll over them, smashing them into the pavement.

"Thanks." Steve said, taking a step forward.

"Don't thank me yet." I yelled as more Chitauri landing on the other side of the bridge.

"Cap there's a bank on 42nd, they've cornered a lot of civilians in there." I heard Clint say into the head piece.

"Alright." Cap said.

He and I charged forward fighting our way to 42nd Street.

"Can I get a lift?" He asked me as we reached the building.

"Of course." I telekinetically threw him through the open window on the second floor, then flew after him.

Something was flashing, on the ground, a small box that was surrounded by Chitauri soliders.

 _Is that a bomb?_

I kicked one of them in the chest, pushing him over a desk that was throw into the center of the room. I could hear scared people's screams below us, and I wondered if Alice's mother was below.

An alien raised his gun out in front of him, but I lengthened Obsidian into a spear and threw it, catching the attacker directly between the eyes.

The bomb began to tick faster, and flash brighter.

 _This isn't good._

Steve jumped back, throwing me out of the building as a Chitauri picked up the bomb and threw it at us. It hit the metal of Steve's shield, but the impact propelled us both backward and into a car on the street.

I tried to cushion our landing the best I could, but we still hit pretty hard.

More pain pricked at my side, and I reached a gloved hand and it came back red.

 _Shit. Maybe that wound is deeper than I thought._

I called Obsidian back to me, and it sailed out of the window happily, forming into a sword again, landing in my outstretched hand.

I groaned as I stood up from the car.

"You okay Steve?" I asked looking over at him.

"Mhmm. Just a normal day." He grunted rolling up slowly from the car.

"I'd hope not." I mumbled looking around us at the destruction.

Thor landed next to me and spotted the blood seeping out of my side.

"Cade." He reached out and put pressure on it.

"Thor I am fine. Just need to take a rest real quick." I said weakly sitting down on the car.

Thor didn't move his hand. "Cade I told you to be careful."

"I was being careful." I murmured. "I can already feel it closing up, it will be okay." I whispered.

"I'll kill Loki for this." Thor growled.

"Not if I get to him first." I replied smiling.

The blood flow slowed down.

"See I'm fine, it's not that bad." I stood to my feet shakily. "You ready for another bout?" I asked Steve.

He laughed. "What you getting sleepy?" He joked.

"Not at all." I rose to my full height, lifting Obsidian above me.

"I can close it. I can close the portal." I heard Natasha say. "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

"Do it!" Steve shouted.

"No wait!" Tony said loudly.

"These things are still coming." I replied, as a few more speeders raced overhead.

"Well I've got a nuke coming in, and it's going to blow in less than a minute." Tony said calmly.

"That doesn't sound good." I whispered to Thor.

"And I know just where to put it." Tony continued, thinking out loud.

"Wait, Stark you know that's a one way trip." Steve said solemnly.

"What?" I said gripping Obsidian tighter.

"Yes. I know that."

"Tony don't do it. Let me do it." I began to rise off the ground, but Thor caught my arm in his hand.

"Not gonna happen." He said gruffly.

"Thor come on. You know I can survive out there. I can just take a portal back here if I get stuck." I reasoned with him pulling at his arm. "I don't want another good man to die, because of something Loki did."

"Cade I'm not going to let you commit suicide. I'm not going to lose you that way. I'm not going to let Loki take you away from me." He said angrily.

I stopped struggling against him, his words hitting home, and lowered myself back to the ground.

Tony flashed overhead pushing the nuke in front of him.

"He's a brave man." I whispered.

"Yes. He is." Thor breathed.

We all watched as he flew into the portal, disappearing from our sight.

The Chitauri began to power down around us, all of them falling to the ground as though dead.

But Tony still didn't appear at the portal.

"Close it." Steve ordered.

I bowed my head against my chest, and Thor pulled me into his arms.

The portal above us began to close rapidly, but then as I looked up I saw Tony falling through the sky.

"He made it!" I shouted happily.

"Son of a gun." Steve said awestruck.

"Wait, he's not slowing down." Thor said pushing me aside as he began to prepare to leap into the air.

Before he could take off, Hulk caught Tony in his arms and pulled him to the ground, cushioning his fall.

They landed in front of us, and Thor ripped off the front of Tony's mask.

"Tony, don't be dead!" I said kneeling next to him.

Steve put his ear to Tony's face trying to hear his breath. He looked at me and shook his head.

 _No, not Tony too._

I sat back on my heels, and rubbed my face with one hand. I was covered in ash, blood, and who knows what, but I didn't care.

Suddenly Hulk let loose a roar, that made me jump out of my skin.

Tony shot upright and yelled loudly.

I laughed at him and stood up.

"What the hell!" Tony shouted. "What just happened?"

"You died." I said raising an eyebrow.

"Please tell me that Cade kissed me." Tony joked.

I laughed loudly. "No it was actually Thor that did." I replied, laughing at the face Tony made. "I can't believe we won."

Tony laughed. "Yayy! Good job everybody!" He tried to get up, but stopped mid way. "Hey has anybody ever had Shwarma? I saw a Shwarma place over there."

"Not now, we have unfinished business." Thor said stoically.

"Okay, then Shwarma after." Tony replied completely standing up.

I shook my head, laughing at Tony's candor.

"Come on." I said, grabbing Steve and flying over to Stark's building.

Thor picked up Clint on the way, and we all met on the balcony.

Loki was lying in the inside of the building, crawling out of a huge concrete hole. He smiled when he saw us and casually leaned backward like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"If it's the same to you. I'll have that drink now." He said smiling.

* * *

I landed next to the car gently, with Thor behind me.

He pushed the car out of the way so I could get to where Echo was with Alice.

They were still curled up together in the backseat, with Echo laying protectively over her. He gave me a wolfy grin and started to make his way out of the car.

"Cade!" Alice yelled jumping out of the backseat and into my arms.

"I told you I would come back." I said into her shoulder. "Now let's go find your mommy."

I found a Midgardian in uniform and asked him where the civilians were being kept.

He was hesitant to tell me, but after a menacing growl from Echo he told me.

Thor followed behind me silently, down the broken streets, but as we were walking I heard a woman shouting from behind us.

"Alice, baby!" The woman yelled, running towards us.

Alice let go of me and ran shakily towards the brunette woman that was running full speed at us.

"Mommy!" Alice yelled happily, jumping into the woman's arms.

I smiled watching their reunion. Echo nudged my leg, and I reached down to pat him on the head.

The woman looked up at me. "Thank you, you saved my baby."

"She was very brave ma'am." I replied smiling.

Thor nugged his shoulder into mine, and we turned to leave, walking back down the empty streets to get Shwarma.

 _Whatever the hell that was._


	16. Chapter 16: Homeward Bound

We ended up staying in New York for 2 more days. Tony and Erik Selvig worked hard on trying to figure out a way for Thor, Loki, and I to use the Tesseract to get back to Asgard.

I tried to convince them that I could just make a portal back, but Tony wanted to try and tinker around with the Tesseract. Thor didn't want me to use my powers to get home, he was convinced that I needed to rest after the battle that had taken place, even after I complained that I was fine. He's just worried about me, which is sweet, but also annoying.

I am a warrior too and Thor understands that, maybe he is more worried about emotional damage. Loki really did try to tear me apart, but I'm working through it, slowly, very slowly.

We were all standing in the middle of a public park in the middle of New York City, exposed.

Thor and I had already said our goodbyes, and he was eager to get back to Asgard, but for once I didn't want to go back. I was intrigued by this brave new world that Midgard had become. In Asgard I was looked down on, looked on as a weakling who had fallen into Loki's trap, but here I could be more. Natasha and I were already becoming friends, and it was weird to be friends with a girl. I had always been friends with men, and despised by women, mostly Sif, but the promise of a new friend who was a female warrior excited me. My grandmother had often spoke of her Valkyrie sisters and the battles they fought, and I had always wanted that. Sif had turned me down, but Natasha, there was something there.

Echo wanted to stay because Clint kept giving him dog biscuits. Which as I tried to explain to Clint that Echo is a wolf, Clint nodded and continued to rub Echo's belly like a dog.

 _At least I have something to go back to._

Erik handed Thor the Tesseract and the portal creator that he and Tony had made. Loki stood on one side and Thor on the other. I placed my hand over the top of the glass cylinder and I ignored Loki's attempts to telepathically speak to me by putting up a shield in my mind.

 _He didn't deserve to run my life anymore, I wasn't going to let anyone run my life anymore._

The Tesseract blazed to life sucking us all up in a flash of blue light.

My feet hit ground hard, but Thor kept me upright, his hand holding my arm steadily.

We landed at the edge of the broken rainbow bridge, where Odin had a force of soldiers waiting for us.

We all marched towards the palace slowly, with Thor and I in the lead of the force. I was carrying the Tesseract, sensing the power beneath my hands.

When we got to the palace, Odin was waiting for us on his golden throne, with Frigga standing on his right hand. I took a deep breath and walked forward holding the Tesseract out in front of me.

"We retrieved what had been lost Allfather." I said calmly.

He nodded. "Heimdall take the Tesseract from Cade and put it in the vault." Heimdall appeared from behind a pillar and took the Tesseract from me gently. He walked quickly down the passage way to the left of us.

Odin raised his eye to look at the guards around us. "I wish to speak to the prisoner alone." He commanded.

Thor and I both turned to go.

"No, you two stay. There is much to discuss." Odin confirmed.

I turned around slowly and nervously pulled at Obsidian, that was strapped to my side as a sword.

I willed Echo off of my arm, and he materialized in front of me.

"Go find somewhere to stretch out." I whispered to him.

He bounded out of the room towards the open pavilion to the right of us.

"Hello mother." Loki said happily, looking over at Frigga. "Have I made you proud?"

Her face hardened. "Do not make this worse for yourself Loki."

Loki took a step forward his chains rattling together. "Define worse." He responded winking at her. "I honestly don't see what all the fuss is about."

I sighed and leaned against a pillar.

 _Of course he doesn't think genocide is a big deal._

"Do you not feel the gravity of your crimes? Wherever you go war and death follows." Odin gruffed out.

"I went to Midguard to rule them as a benevolent god, just like you would have." Loki commented, the smile never leaving his face.

 **"Why does he think this is okay?"** Thor thought.

 **"Because he's Loki. He doesn't take anything seriously."** I replied sighing again..

"We are not gods, we are born we live, we die, just as humans do." Odin said gritting his teeth.

"Give or take 5,000 years." Loki replied snidely.

He was almost mocking Odin, something that was a very bad idea.

"All this because Loki desires a throne." Odin said sarcastically.

"It is my birth rite!" Loki snarled.

"You're birth rite was to die!" Odin shouted. "As a child cast out on a frozen rock. If I had not taken you in, you would not be here now to hate me."

 _Wow this is awkward._

Thor shifted uncomfortably next to me.

 _Yeah he feels it too._

"If I am for the axe then for mercy sake just swing it." Loki said rolling his eyes. "It's not that I don't like our little talks, but..." He trailed off. "Actually I don't like them."

 **"Loki, you should respect him for keeping you alive."** I said to him gritting my teeth.

 **"Oh are you talking to me now?"** He replied.

I rolled my eyes.

 **"I'm trying to keep you alive, but you are making it rather difficult for me actually."** I responded sarcastically.

"Frigga is the only reason you are still alive, but you will never see her again." Odin tsked. "You will spend the rest of your days in the dungeons."

The guards came back into the room to pull Loki away.

"But what about Thor? You would make that witless oaf king while I rot in chains?" Loki roared turning to where Thor and I were standing.

Odin paused and looked over at both of us. "Thor and Cade will both be working to undo the damage you have done, and bring peace upon the nine realms. And then yes, Thor will be king."

The guards pulled Loki away out of the room, but not before he cast one more longing look at me as he passed.

"Thor, Cade, come forth." Odin commanded.

I stood up straight and walked with Thor in front of the giant golden throne.

"Loki still longs for you." Odin said turning to me.

I swallowed and nodded. "I know. He wishes to go back to a time where things were the same. He wishes to live in the past, ignoring what has happened in the present." I responded.

"You must not focus on what has happened in the past Cadence, you need to look into the future and figure out where your loyalties lie." Odin said stoically.

"My loyalties?" I questioned.

Odin nodded. "I sense a war within you, an inner struggle that will pull you apart if you let Loki in. The same war was within your grandmother, her struggle between her family and her orders. You must not let this live in you."

I clenched my teeth. "I will not let it invade my mind Allfather."

"Good. See that it doesn't." Odin replied." Now, Loki has brought disorder onto the nine realms and I need you and Thor to fix it."

"Yes father." Thor said calmly.

"Yes your highness." I said bowing my head.

"The road ahead is not clear, and you and Thor must be ready to face what is in the mist." Odin said mysteriously.

A silence settled over the room.

"I fear that Asgard is not ready for what will rise from the mist." Odin's voice echoed over the throne room.

A chill raced through me as I remembered the dark shadowy figure in my dreams.

 _Something was coming, we needed to be ready._

 ** _Thank you for reading! Tell me what you think, like or comment. Be on the look out for "The Valkyrie Legacy Part 2: The Calm Before The Storm"_**


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